Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Currently, no tools are available, in a research setting, to accurately and easily measure kidney function when preserved and in the early stages of kidney failure. Meanwhile, chronic kidney disease affects 12.5% of Canadians in their lifetime and is the most important risk factor for cardiovascular related death. The goal of my thesis and the target of this scholarship will be to eliminate this gap in knowledge. The current gold-standard for kidney function measurement is not feasible for regular use in a research settings. The alternative, creatinine plasma levels, is neither an accurate nor a reliable measurement of early kidney function decline. I propose the development of a protocol using iohexol, a widely used radio contrast agent, to easily measure kidney function, awake, following a single injection. I hypothesize this protocol will be within %90 accuracy of the gold standard. The use of iohexol to measure kidney function via plasma clearance would ameliorate all of the confounds associated with estimating kidney function with serum creatinine, but would be far more realistic for implementation in long-term studies than the gold standard. Accurate and simple protocols to measure GFR by iohexol plasma clearance will facilitate an important shift in basic and translational research in CKD. Investigators will be able to study the onset of CKD and its progression, which using usual current methods, is not feasible. Accurate and routine GFR measurement protocols will also be necessary for animal studies evaluating interventions designed to prevent the development of CKD and delay its progression