September 26, 2024
A new study published in the medical research journal Neurology suggests that sudden worsening of kidney function (referred to as “acute kidney injury”) may nearly double the risk of developing Lewy body dementia (LBD).
What was the study about?
Previous research has suggested a potential link between acute kidney injury and the later development of dementia. In the new study, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden explored this potential link by examining the medical records of people living in Stockholm. The researchers followed more than 300,000 people from 2006 to 2018. All participants were aged 65 or older, and did not have either dementia or a history of acute kidney injury when they entered the study.
What did they find?
During the study, 26% of the participants had at least one episode of acute kidney injury, and 16% developed dementia. Dementia cases were much more common among those who had experienced acute kidney injury during the study period. In fact, the researchers found that the risk of dementia was 49% higher after an acute kidney injury.
The researchers also examined what kind of dementia people developed during the study and whether acute kidney injury increased risk differently for various forms of dementias. For Alzheimer’s, the risk was increased by 31%, and for vascular dementia it was 47%. But the strongest association was with LBD. People with an acute kidney injury were 88% more likely to develop LBD than people without an acute kidney injury. This risk also increased in those over the age of 85.
Does this mean that if I have experienced an acute kidney injury I will also develop dementia?
This is still preliminary research. Even though the sample size was very large, this kind of study can only establish a correlation between the two events, it cannot establish a causative relationship. In other words, we cannot yet say that acute kidney injury causes dementia. In addition, many people in the study had acute kidney injuries and never developed dementia, and conversely, many people who did develop dementia never had an acute kidney injury. So, at a population level, we can say that acute kidney injury is associated with increased risk for later development of dementia; but within an individual, acute kidney injury does not guarantee dementia.
What is next for this research?
The researchers recommend that people with acute kidney injury be further studied. In particular, they suggest that future research examine whether such individuals should be more closely monitored by their healthcare providers for potential dementia, and whether the development of preventive of therapeutic strategies for people with acute kidney injuries would be beneficial.
Reference:
Xu H, Eriksdotter M, Garcia-Ptacek S, Ferreira D, Ji D, Bruchfeld A, Xu Y, Carrero JJ. 2024. Acute kidney injury and its association with dementia and specific dementia types: Findings from a population-based study in Sweden. Neurology, 103(6), doi: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000209751
