For area residents concerned with the possibility of kidney disease associated with their high blood pressure or diabetes, there is a new facility opening in Chapmanville that will bring the diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease closer to Boone County.

Dr. Abdul Zanabli, a board certified physician in Internal Medicine and Nephrology, and who is designated as a hypertension and transplant specialist, is bringing close to a decade of experience with him to the area.

Trained at Brown University and the Mayo Clinic in Ohio, Zanabli has been building ties to the West Virginia community, saying that the reason he became interested in medicine was “an enjoyment of taking care of people. Helping people is what motivated me,” he said.

“Almost 2/3 of patients with kidney disease have high blood pressure and diabetes,” Zanabli said. He said that he hopes to bring strategies for adequate treatment of high blood pressure and diabetes to the residents of Boone County who travel to his upcoming Chapmanville location.

“The normal blood pressure is 130/80; unfortunately, rarely is the blood pressure of patients controlled. We strive to control patients’ medications and lifestyles to achieve adequate blood pressure and diabetes control,” he said.

Zanabli said the new practice will feature the ability to offer patients kidney ultrasounds, echos, cardiograms, and facilitate lab work.

“We don’t offer lab work at every location, but we arrange it within our practice,” he noted.

“When patients develop kidney disease, this is a progressive problem and if not treated in a timely manner they can end up on dialysis,” Zanabli said.

According to Zanabli, there are two forms of dialysis – the first form of dialysis requires that the patient report to the doctor’s office where a machine is attached to their body for three to four hours and the patient’s blood is “cleansed” of toxins. Most patients report to the doctor’s office three days every week for this treatment.

The second form of dialysis is an in-home option, where the patient attaches a bag of fluid directly to their kidney via a catheter in their abdomen. A second bag then collects the “filtered” or “dirty fluid” from the kidney. This option requires more time, approximately eight hours, and many patients choose to do this at night, Zanabli said.

According to Zanabli, many patients facing kidney disease choose to have a kidney transplant.

“Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice, as it restores the patient’s lifestyle,” Zanabli said, in which case the patient’s name would go onto a waiting list.

“Patients with diabetes need to routinely have their kidneys checked and monitored more carefully,” Zanabli said, although he did acknowledge that not all patients with kidney disease were diabetic.

“Kidney disease does not cause any symptoms unless it is in an advanced state. That’s why we concentrate on screening people at risk,” he said.

Zanabli said that people in an advanced state of kidney disease will experience poor appetite and possible weight loss, swelling of the legs, itching of the skin, and blood in the urine, to name a few symptoms.

According to Zanabli, anyone who is interested in being screened for high blood pressure, diabetes, or kidney disease should contact their main office at 304-414-2150 to schedule a screening time. “A single urine test can tell us if there is protein present, or leaking blood, or if there is an infection,” he said, noting that the test takes about 15 minutes to complete.

“You don’t need a referral. Simply call ahead and if you have another physician, we can send the information to them,” Zanabli said.

Contact Joanie Newman at jnewman@coalvalleynews.com or call 369-1165