Dr. Choi’s innovative investigation centers on vein and artery complications in patients undergoing blood dialysis due to renal (kidney) failure. Chronic kidney disease, often caused by high blood pressure or diabetes, affects 1 in 9 Americans with another 20 million at increased risk.
Patients with kidney failure often undergo hemodialysis, a life-saving, three-treatments-weekly procedure in which the patient’s blood is circulated through a dialysis machine that filters and cleanses it of waste products, a process the patient’s kidneys can no longer perform. Dialysis requires a surgically-created artery-to-vein (arteriovenous) direct connection or a prosthetic graft inserted in the patient's arm or leg. This artificial circuit often fails due to poor or blocked flow and must be surgically repaired or replaced to continue treatments. The cause of failure is abnormal scarring and thickening of the lining of the vein that receives the blood from the artery. Dr. Choi is researching the cellular and molecular mechanism that causes this abnormality, a significant first step in designing a treatment to control or prevent this vascular problem.
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