sickle cell trait and another one called the hemoglobin C trait, are more common in black people.
Previous studies have tied these variants to chronic kidney disease in blacks. The study authors wanted to learn if these traits were also associated with kidney failure needing dialysis.
Naik and her colleagues evaluated data on almost 10,000 black people. More than 700 had sickle cell trait and almost 250 had the hemoglobin C trait.
In 6.5 years of follow-up, kidney failure requiring dialysis developed in about 5 percent of study participants with sickle cell trait. In people with the hemoglobin C trait, just 2.5 percent developed kidney failure serious enough for dialysis. In those who didn’t have a gene variant, 2.6 percent had kidney failure needing dialysis, the research showed.
But the study didn’t prove a cause-and-effect relationship. It only showed an association between this gene variant and the need for dialysis.
Results of the research were published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Sickle cell trait is found in 8 to 9 percent of black people, the study authors noted. They suggested their