Selected presentations from the joint annual meeting of the RPA-NIDDK 1995

This text focuses on group differences in kidney dialysis. Patient characteristics, often demographic and unchangable, greatly effect the final outcome of the disease. For example, African Americans have a very high incidence of end-stage renal disease, but survive longest once on dialysis. This generalization also seems to hold true for Mexican Americans. The implications of these observations are great, as they place a burden on these ethnic societies and on the health delivery systems. Also these groups, along with native Americans, have lower transplantation rates. This observation has major economic and clinical implications. To compound this further, African Americans are at increased risk for graft loss due to multiple immunologic and non-immunologic factors.