When Pennsylvania residents have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, there are several medical conditions that they may be more susceptible to than the average person. In particular, people with these types of diabetes may end up developing end-stage renal disease or chronic kidney disease. These are serious medical conditions, and diagnosing them in a timely manner is an important part of keeping kidneys functioning properly.
Due to the fact that the standard methods of determining if a diabetes sufferer might have either kidney condition left room for improvement, doctors started looking for methods other than a person’s albumin to creatinine ratio or estimated glomerular filtration rate to diagnose kidney issues. In 2012, two doctors determined that weakening renal function appeared to correlate with a the tumor necrosis factor receptor.
The doctors developed a test based on this correlation with the goal of improving the medical profession’s ability to diagnose kidney diseases in diabetes sufferers. Results of their tests and research were published in Kidney International, and it appears that their test has a 71 percent success rate at identifying individuals with end-stage renal disease.
The failure to diagnose a condition can lead to a worsened medical condition. While there are times when a doctor legitimately is unable to successfully identify a medical condition, if a medical professional failed to run appropriate tests or neglected to consider a person’s symptoms, malpractice may have occurred. Patients who have been harmed in such a manner may want to seek the advice of an attorney to see what legal remedies might be available to them.