SYDNEY, Jan 29 (Xinhua): Australian researchers are working on a new clinical trial using water to treat an inherited disease that leads to kidney failure.
The trial will investigate whether drinking the right amount of water can prevent adult polycystic kidney disease, in which the organs deteriorate because of the growth of cysts that destroy healthy tissue, the researchers' Westmead Institute for Medical Research said in a media statement on Monday.
"Water stops the hormone that makes these cysts grow, so ensuring you aren't thirsty reduces the chance of cysts growing," the institute quoted Dr Gopi Rangan, one of the study team's leaders, as saying.
"This is important, because there is no cure for polycystic kidney disease. More than 50 percent of patients eventually develop kidney failure, requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation."
Their approach, if successful, could have major benefits for patients of the disease, to "potentially prevent kidney failure occurring altogether," said Rangan, whose study also included team leaders from Westmead Hospital.
The new study protocol, published in medical journal BMJ Open, is touted as the first of its kind to provide evidence on whether prescribed water intake is an effective treatment for the disease. The three-year randomized, controlled clinical trial will use magnetic resonance imaging to assess the rate of cyst growth in the kidney, the institute said. More than 240 people have enrolled in the trial and full results will be available in 2020.
"A positive study result will show that water is a cheap, safe and effective treatment," said Rangan.
Patients suffering from the kidney disease develop hundreds of the cysts, which form in early childhood and grow by 5 to 10 percent each year, the institute said.
