Kidney Disease clinical trials at UCSD
5 in progress, 1 open to new patients

Good communication among patients, their families and loved ones, and their medical care providers is important when figuring out how to treat chronic diseases like kidney disease. A lot of people may not know all of their choices for how to treat kidney disease, and this can lead to rushed decisions or even a sense that there weren't any choices to make. In this study, the investigators are trying to find out if a decision-aid program on a computer can help people with kidney disease have more confidence in their decisions and have better agreement about their decisions with their families and loved ones. The DART study will be conducted at four sites in different areas of the country: Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; Chicago, Illinois; and San Diego, California. The study will enroll a total of 400 people with kidney disease at these four sites.

This study will evaluate patients who have an episode of moderate to severe acute kidney injury (AKI) and are followed in a focused post-AKI clinic. After patients present signs of kidney recovery and before hospital discharge, patients who give consent will be enrolled in the study. At the first post-AKI clinic visit, patients will be randomly allocated to follow a normal (ad-lib) or a low protein diet (LPD) for 3 months. Patients allocated to a LPD will receive a drug called Ketosteril. This drug allows the intake of essential amino acids while minimizing the amino-nitrogen intake, what in excess, can be bad for the recovered kidney. The investigators will evaluate the nutritional parameters and the kidney recovery of all patients and compare these parameters in those two groups.