Nomenclature in nephrology: preserving ‘renal’ and ‘nephro' in the glossary of kidney health and disease
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: 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.
Source: Journal of Nephrology
Authors: Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, Peter A. McCullough, Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, Srinivasan Beddhu, Mona Boaz, Annette Bruchfeld, Philippe Chauveau, Jing Chen, Patricia de Sequera, Nieltje Gedney, Thomas A. Golper, Malini Gupta, Tess Harris, Lori Hartwell, Vassilios Liakopoulos, Joel D. Kopple, Csaba P. Kovesdy, Iain C. Macdougall, Johannes F. E. Mann, Donald Molony, Keith C. Norris, Jeffrey Perlmutter, Connie M. Rhee, Leonardo V. Riella, Steven D. Weisbord, Carmine Zoccali, David Goldsmith
Institutions: University of California, Irvine, Baylor University Medical Center, Baylor Jack and Jane Hamilton Heart and Vascular Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Utah, Ariel University, Linköping University, Hôpital Pellegrin, Fudan University, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor, Vanderbilt University, Polycystic Kidney Disease Charity, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of California, Los Angeles, University of Tennessee System, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, King's College Hospital, Technical University of Munich, Harvard University, VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Istituto di Fisiologia Clinica, Guy's Hospital
Language: English
Subfield: Anatomy
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3134093031