2 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
The proposed study will investigate the effects of etelcalcetide on the bone and blood-vessel health in patients with CKD-MBD. The investigators will test if etelcalcetide makes bone and blood-vessels healthier. The study hypotheses are that are that etelcalcetide keeps bones strong and lowers the risk of calcium deposits in blood vessels. In Aim 1, the investigators will test if 9-months of treatment with etelcalcetide improves bone strength in twenty ESKD patients with hyperparathyroidism (HPT) by bone biopsy. In Aim 2, the investigators will test if 9-months of treatment with etelcalcetide decreases serum propensity to calcify blood vessels. The potential significance of this study is to provide first-time data on the ability of etelcalcetide to protect bone and blood-vessel health in patients with ESKD.
Treatment of renal osteodystrophy is impeded by the lack of practical and accurate tools to determine underlying bone turnover. Gold standard bone biopsy is not practical in the clinic for the vast majority of kidney disease patients and parathyroid hormone and bone alkaline phosphatase have insufficient accuracy for turnover type to safely and confidently guide treatment of renal osteodystrophy. In the present investigation, the investigators will study a microRNA approach as a novel non-invasive biomarker of turnover for renal osteodystrophy.