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The incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) among patients hospitalized for COVID-19 in China was significantly lower than for similar patients in the United States, a new retrospective study from Wuhan indicates.
However, mortality among patients who do develop AKI following COVID-19 infection — especially if they require dialysis — is much higher in both regions than it is for patients who do not sustain kidney damage, this and other studies consistently show.
In an editorial accompanying the Wuhan study, published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, Edward Siew, MD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Bethany Birkelo, DO, Veterans Affairs, Nashville, Tennessee, say the Chinese researchers should “be commended” for their contribution to the literature. “The extraction and analysis of data under challenging conditions with several clinical and logistical unknowns are