Nomenclature in nephrology: preserving renal and nephro in the glossary of kidney health and diseaseShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: JN. Journal of Nephrology, ISSN 1121-8428, E-ISSN 1724-6059, Vol. 34, no 3, p. 639-648Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
A recently published nomenclature by a "Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes" (KDIGO) Consensus Conference suggested that the word "kidney" should be used in medical writings instead of "renal" or "nephro" when referring to kidney disease and kidney health. Whereas the decade-old move to use "kidney" more frequently should be supported when communicating with the public-at-large, such as the World Kidney Day, or in English speaking countries in communications with patients, care-partners, and non-medical persons, our point of view is that "renal" or "nephro" should not be removed from scientific and technical writings. Instead, the terms can coexist and be used in their relevant contexts. Cardiologists use "heart" and "cardio" as appropriate such as "heart failure" and "cardiac care units" and have not replaced "cardiovascular" with "heartvessel", for instance. Likewise, in nephrology, we consider that "chronic kidney disease" and "continuous renal replacement therapy" should coexist. We suggest that in scientific writings and technical communications, the words "renal" and "nephro" and their derivatives are more appropriate and should be freely used without any pressure by medical journals to compel patients, care-partners, healthcare providers, researchers and other stakeholders to change their selected words and terminologies. We call to embrace the terms "kidney", "renal" and "nephro" as they are used in different contexts and ask that scientific and medical journals not impose terminology restrictions for kidney disease and kidney health. The choice should be at the discretion of the authors, in the different contexts including in scientific journals.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
SPRINGER HEIDELBERG , 2021. Vol. 34, no 3, p. 639-648
Keywords [en]
Nomenclature; Renal; Kidney; Nephron; Scientific language
National Category
Clinical Medicine
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-174885DOI: 10.1007/s40620-021-01011-3ISI: 000628471100002PubMedID: 33713333OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-174885DiVA, id: diva2:1542715
Note
Funding Agencies|NIDDK NIH HHSUnited States Department of Health & Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health (NIH) - USANIH National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) [K24-DK091419] Funding Source: Medline
2021-04-082021-04-082025-02-18Bibliographically approved