Education and End of Life in Chronic Kidney Disease: Disparities in Black and White

[摘要] More than a half million patients are being treated for ESRD in the United States (1). Estimates suggest that more than 23 million people in the United States have earlier stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) (2). More than one third of US dialysis patients are black, a threefold overrepresentation (1,3–6). The mortality of dialysis patients with ESRD is approximately 21% annually (1). In contrast to the course of other chronic illnesses in the United States, black dialysis patients enjoy improved survival compared with white patients (1,5). This paradoxic difference is unexplained by socioeconomic status or currently identified biological factors. A reasonable hypothesis would suggest psychosocial factors underlie this dramatic disparity (7).

[学科分类] 泌尿医学

[关键词] Bone marrow necrosis;Sickle cell disease;Hyperhemolysis syndrome