The Novel Coronavirus 2019 epidemic and kidneys

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Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a newly discovered contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)–coronavirus (CoV)-2 virus, primarily manifesting as an acute respiratory illness with interstitial and alveolar pneumonia, but it can affect multiple organs such as the kidney, heart, digestive tract, blood, and nervous system. The rapidly spreading outbreak, which first emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019, has since been declared a global pandemic. As of March 16, 2020, 167,511 cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide in 151 countries (and a cruise ship), with 6606 deaths. In recent days, the number of cases has risen rapidly in South Korea, Japan, Europe, and the United States.

SARS-CoV-2 has been identified as a bat-origin CoV. The full-length genome sequence of the COVID-19 virus shows a close relationship with the bat SARS-like coronavirus strain BatCov RaTG13 belonging to the Betacoronavirus genus.

Kidney involvement in COVID-19 infection

In previous reports of SARS and MERS-CoV infections, acute kidney injury (AKI) developed in 5% to 15% cases and carried a high (60%–90%) mortality rate. Early reports suggested a lower incidence (3%–9%) of AKI in those with COVID-19 infection. Recent reports, however, have shown higher frequency of renal abnormalities. A study of 59 patients with COVID-19 found that 34% of patients developed massive albuminuria on the first day of admission, and 63% developed proteinuria during their stay in hospital. Blood urea nitrogen was elevated in 27% overall and in two-thirds of patients who died. Computed tomography scan of the kidneys showed reduced density, suggestive of inflammation and edema. Recently it has been reported that amongst 710 consecutive hospitalized patients with COVID-19, 44% had proteinuria and hematuria and 26.7% had hematuria on admission. The prevalence of elevated serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen was 15.5% and 14.1%, respectively. AKI was an independent risk factor for patients’ in-hospital mortality.

Journal of Clinical Nephrology and Therapeutics  publishes scientific manuscripts that are directly or indirectly based on variegated aspects of clinical nephrology, diabetic nephropathy, pediatric nephrology, renal physiology, renal histopathology, immunobiology, intensive care nephrology and ischemic nephropathy.

The journal most specifically emphasizes on the propagation of research developments that may contribute in the furtherance of research and clinical implementation of novel tools as well as adept clinical techniques including renal transplantation, dialysis, diagnostic kidney imaging, aging and kidney disease, hemodialysis, body fluid volume composition, nephron endowment and erythropoietin therapy.

The journal accepts original submissions in the form of Research Articles, Review Articles, Short Communications, Opinion Articles, Case Reports and Commentaries. Acceptance or rejection of the manuscript solely depends upon the comments of independent reviewers. Positive review by at least two reviewers is mandatory for the acceptance and publication of any citable manuscript.

You may submit manuscripts as an email attachment to the following mail-id: clinnephrol@emedscholar.com

Kind Regards,
Mercedes Rose
Editorial Team
Journal of Clinical Nephrology and Therapeutic

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