Research Projects

Assessment of Cognition in People with Chronic Kidney Disease (ARCS-CKD)

Cognitive impairment in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) is very common but often unrecognised. Testing cognition using conventional tests is often time consuming and requires skill and experience. The proposed research will compare the properties of a cognitive test instrument that has been developed locally, the Audio Recorded Cognitive Screen (ARCS), with other conventional tests. The ARCS requires less time of clinicians and no skill to administer, and may be more sensitive to cognitive changes. The study is designed to determine if the ARCS would be a feasible and optimal option for testing cognitive decline among people with CKD. This project will commence in the first trimester of 2017, pending Hunter New England Staff recruitment of a Research Assistant.

Immunological Tolerance and Immunosuppression in Renal Transplantation

This enterprise aims to find associations between recipient responsiveness leading to chronic rejection and non-responsiveness with the loss of complement fixation to donor specific antibodies and kidney transplant tissue. The project commenced 3 years ago and continues to be updated with prospective and retrospective analysis of data from confidential sources.