Physicians have tested different therapies to improve the nutritional status of dialysis patients and combat wasting, such as injections of human growth hormone or adding a liquid supplement to the patient's blood before it is returned to the body. There are serious drawbacks to the treatments, however, such as dangerous side effects and prohibitive costs. As a result, these therapies are usually restricted to only the very sickest patients.
"We felt that stimulating an increase of lean body mass was a sound approach but realized we needed a medication that was widely available, affordable, and produced fewer side effects," says Johansen, who is now director of dialysis at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The team settled on nandrolone decanoate, which is sometimes used illicitly (and in much higher doses) by athletes to bulk up. In the past, anabolic steroids had been used to treat anemia in patients with severe kidney disease but their ability to build lean body mass in dialysis patients had never been tested.
According to Johansen, the number of patients requiring dialysis increases approximately seven to nine percent every year and the average age of patients is rising. Johansen says her groups' findings indicate nandrolone decanoate therapy may have an important positive impact on the physical capabilities and quality of life for dialysis patients of all ages.
Co-investigators on this study were Kathleen Mulligan, Ph.D., UCSF assistant professor of medicine, and Morris Schambelan, M.D., UCSF professor of medicine, both of the Division of Endocrinology in the Department of Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center, which is affiliated with UC San Francisco.
The study was supported by grants from the National Center for Research
Resources, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases,
and the Bay Are
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Contact: James Larkin
jlarkin@pubaff.ucsf.edu
415-750-6633
University of California - San Francisco
14-Apr-1999