Among patients receiving dialysis for chronic kidney disease (CKD), high levels of alkaline phosphatase—a routinely measured laboratory marker of bone disease—may signal an increased risk of death, reports a study in the November Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).

An international study of dialysis patients shows that although U.S. residents have the highest out-of-pocket drug costs, even those who can afford their prescription drugs are far less likely to take them than patients in other countries.

For patients with dialysis-related anemia, the risk of death is increased when hemoglobin levels remain persistently low over a period several months—not necessarily when they fluctuate over time, according to a study in the January Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

But an unhealthy kidney costs more—about $16 billion more, according to Prabir Roy-Chaudhury, MD, PhD, associate professor in the division of nephrology and hypertension at the University of Cincinnati (UC).

Researchers at Johns Hopkins may have discovered an unintended benefit in the drugs millions of Americans take to lower their cholesterol: The medications, all statins, seem to lower the risk of a potentially lethal blood infection known as sepsis in patients on kidney dialysis. The study is published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).