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      Lithium nephrotoxicity

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          Abstract

          Reports of toxic effects on the kidney of lithium treatment emerged very soon after lithium therapy was introduced. Lithium-induced nephrogenic diabetes insipidus is usually self-limiting or not clinically dangerous. Some reports of irreversible chronic kidney disease and renal failure were difficult to attribute to lithium treatment since chronic kidney disease and renal failure exist in the population at large. In recent years, large-scale epidemiological studies have convincingly shown that lithium treatment elevates the risk of chronic kidney disease and renal failure. Most patients do not experience renal side effects. The most common side effect of polyuria only weakly predicts increasing creatinine or reduced kidney function. Among those patients who do experience decrease in creatinine clearance, some may require continuation of lithium treatment even as their creatinine increases. Other patients may be able to switch to a different mood stabilizer medication, but kidney function may continue to deteriorate even after lithium cessation. Most, but not all, evidence today recommends using a lower lithium plasma level target for long-term maintenance and thereby reducing risks of severe nephrotoxicity.

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          Renal failure occurs in chronic lithium treatment but is uncommon.

          Hans Bendz, Staffan Schön, Per-Ola Attman … (2010)
          We sought to establish the prevalence of lithium-induced end-stage renal disease in two regions of Sweden with 2.7 million inhabitants corresponding to about 30% of the Swedish population. Eighteen patients with lithium-induced end-stage renal disease were identified among the 3369 patients in the general lithium-treated population, representing a sixfold increase in prevalence compared with the general population for renal replacement therapy. All lithium-treated patients were older than 46 years at end-stage renal disease with a mean lithium treatment time of 23 years with ten patients having discontinued lithium treatment an average of 10 years before the start of renal replacement therapy. The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (defined as plasma creatinine over 150 micromol/l) in the general lithium-treated population was about 1.2% (excluding patients on renal replacement therapy). Compared with lithium-treated patients without renal failure, those with chronic kidney disease were older and most were men but, as groups, their mean serum lithium levels and psychiatric diagnoses did not differ. We found that end-stage renal disease is an uncommon but not rare consequence of long-term lithium treatment and is more prevalent than previously thought. Time on lithium was the only identified risk factor in this study, suggesting that regular monitoring of renal function in these patients is mandatory.
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            Lithium nephrotoxicity: a progressive combined glomerular and tubulointerstitial nephropathy.

            Srinidhi J. Radhakrishnan, G. Markowitz, W Hines … (2000)
            This study examines the clinical features, pathologic findings, and outcome of 24 patients with biopsy-proven lithium toxicity. The patient population was 50% male, 87.5% Caucasian, and had a mean age of 42.5 yr (range, 26 to 57). Mean duration of lithium therapy for bipolar disorder was 13.6 yr (range, 2 to 25). All patients were biopsied for renal insufficiency (mean serum creatinine 2.8 mg/dl; range, 1.3 to 8.0), with associated proteinuria >1.0 g/d in 41.7%. Nephrotic proteinuria (>3.0 g/d) was present in 25%. Other features included nephrogenic diabetes insipidus in 87% and hypertension in 33.3%. Renal biopsy revealed a chronic tubulointerstitial nephropathy in 100%, with associated cortical and medullary tubular cysts (62.5%) or dilatation (33.3%). All of the renal cysts stained for epithelial membrane antigen, while 51.4% stained with lectin Arachis hypogaea, and only 3.8% stained with Tetragonolobus purpureas, indicating they originated from distal and collecting tubules. The degree of tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis was graded as severe in 58.3%, moderate in 37.5%, and mild in 4.2% of cases. There was a surprisingly high prevalence of focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (50%) and global glomerulosclerosis (100%), sometimes of equivalent severity to the chronic tubulointerstitial disease. The significant degree of foot process effacement (mean 34%, five of 14 cases with >50%) suggests a potential direct glomerular toxicity. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis correlated with proteinuria >1.0 g/d (P = 0.0014, Fisher exact test). Despite discontinuation of lithium, seven of nine patients with initial serum creatinine values >2.5 mg/dl progressed to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Only three patients, all with initial serum creatinine 2.5 mg/dl at biopsy (P = 0. 008). In conclusion, lithium nephrotoxicity primarily targets distal and collecting tubules, with a higher incidence of proteinuria and associated glomerular pathology than recognized previously. Renal dysfunction is often irreversible despite lithium withdrawal, and early detection is essential to prevent progression to ESRD.
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              Prevalence, pathogenesis, and treatment of renal dysfunction associated with chronic lithium therapy.

              Robert Boton, Moises Gaviria, Daniel C. Batlle (1987)
              From the analysis of several studies published from 1979 to 1986 comprising 1,172 patients, we estimated that glomerular filtration rate (GFR) was normal in 85% of unselected patients on chronic lithium therapy. The remaining 15% of patients displayed only mild reduction in GFR, clustering at approximately 60 mL/min. Thus, the data available to date do not support earlier concerns that long-term lithium therapy could eventuate into renal insufficiency. The most prevalent renal effect of lithium is impairment of concentrating ability, which we estimated to be present in at least 54% of 1,105 unselected patients on chronic lithium therapy. This defect translated into overt polyuria in only 19% of unselected cases. A renal lesion confined to the collecting tubule has been described in humans who have taken lithium for short periods of time. This lesion may represent the collecting tubule's response to the intracellular accumulation of lithium, which interferes with cAMP formation and results in an early and probably reversible inhibition of antidiuretic hormone (ADH)-mediated water transport. However, long-term lithium therapy may induce a progressive and partly irreversible defect in concentrating ability. The potential risk for dehydration associated with lithium-induced polyuria, as well as the discomfort inherent to this side effect, deserves evaluation and consideration for therapeutic intervention. Amiloride has additional advantages over conventional treatment of nephrogenic diabetes insipidus using thiazide diuretics. The action of amiloride on ADH-mediated water transport seems specific in as much as it is capable of preventing the uptake of lithium in high resistance epithelia and thereby prevents the inhibitory effect of intracellular lithium on water transport. Unlike thiazides, amiloride has a weak natriuretic effect and is less likely to increase plasma lithium levels by causing volume contraction. In addition, amiloride, by conserving potassium, obviates the need for potassium supplementation that is usually required to prevent hypokalemia when thiazides are used to treat lithium-induced polyuria. Since amiloride may prevent chronic intracellular lithium accumulation in the collecting tubule, future studies should elucidate whether amiloride also has a role in preventing lithium-induced chronic tubulo-interstitial damage.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Abed N. Azab: azab@bgu.ac.il
                Alla Shnaider: ellasc@bgu.ac.il
                Yamima Osher: yamy11@gmail.com
                Dana Wang: pineapplecutter@gmail.com
                Yuly Bersudsky: yuly@bgu.ac.il
                R. H. Belmaker: 972 8-6469688 , belmaker@bgu.ac.il
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int J Bipolar Disord
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Int J Bipolar Disord
                Title: International Journal of Bipolar Disorders
                Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (Berlin/Heidelberg )
                ISSN (Electronic): 2194-7511
                Publication date (Electronic): 5 June 2015
                Publication date PMC-release: 5 June 2015
                Publication date Collection: 2015
                Volume: 3
                Electronic Location Identifier: 13
                Affiliations
                [ ]School for Community Health Professions, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel
                [ ]Nephrology Department, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel
                [ ]Bipolar Disorders Clinic, Beer-Sheva Mental Health Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
                [ ]Bipolar Disorders Clinic, Hadassah Medical Center, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel
                Article
                Publisher ID: 28
                DOI: 10.1186/s40345-015-0028-y
                PMC ID: 4456600
                PubMed ID: 26043842
                SO-VID: e4d1c381-6bb1-4c66-930e-ea660c000be1
                Copyright © © Azab et al. 2015
                License:

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.

                History
                Date received : 23 February 2015
                Date accepted : 30 April 2015
                Categories
                Subject: Review
                Custom metadata
                issue-copyright-statement © The Author(s) 2015

                Keywords: bipolar disorder,creatinine,kidney,lithium,nephrotoxicity,suicide
                Data availability:
                Keywords: bipolar disorder, creatinine, kidney, lithium, nephrotoxicity, suicide

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