New blood assay can identify deadly calcium deposits

WASHINGTON, DC – Scientists have developed a new blood assay that could help identify and treat individuals at risk of developing potentially deadly calcium deposits in their tissues and blood vessels.

Heart disease is the number one killer of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Vascular calcification is thought to play a major role in its development. Patients with CKD often have abnormally high blood calcium levels due to their compromised kidney function and medication used, which may lead to deadly calcifications in tissues and blood vessels. Until recently, physicians had no tools to determine a patient’s calcification risk.

The study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), was conducted by Andreas Pasch, MD (University Hospital and University of Bern, Inselspital, in Switzerland) and his colleagues. The team has developed the first test that can measure the calcification risk in blood.

Using the assay, the investigators found that both the blood of mice deficient in a protein that inhibits calcification and the blood of CKD patients on dialysis had a reduced ability to inhibit calcification, as compared to healthy volunteers.

“Our test may identify patients at risk for the development of calcification, may become an important tool for identifying and testing calcification inhibitors, and may provide the basis for treatment monitoring in patients who receive such inhibitors,” said Dr Pasch.