# Topics and Trends in Most Cited Dialysis and Renal Disease Management Papers, Class of 2026

*Canonical URL: https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/dialysis-and-renal-disease-management/2026*

## What topics and trends defined most-cited Dialysis and Renal Disease Management research in the Class of 2026?

eGFR, renal fibrosis, and albuminuria define the Class of 2026 dialysis and renal disease cohort, with KDIGO guideline updates and diabetic kidney disease trials driving early citations. Inflammatory indices and oxidative stress rose sharply from Class of 2025, while hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis receded among top-cited papers.

## At a glance

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Field | Dialysis and Renal Disease Management |
| Cohort label | Class of 2026 (2024 publications) |
| Papers analyzed | 7,328 |
| Papers ranked | 20 |
| Top topics in ranked papers | Estimated glomerular filtration rate, Renal fibrosis, Albuminuria, Diabetic kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes mellitus |
| Publication window | Jan 1, 2024 – Dec 31, 2024 |
| Eligibility | Research articles; reviews excluded |
| Citation window | 18 months post-publication |
| 18m citation range | 37–2,333 |
| Data source | OpenAlex · Retrieved Jul 2026 |
| License | CC BY 4.0 |

## Rankings

| Rank | Title | Authors | Corresponding authors | Affiliation | Journal | 18m citations | DOI |
| ---: | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---: | --- |
| 1 | KDIGO 2024 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease | Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) CKD Work Group | Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) CKD Work Group | Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO), Belgium | Kidney International | 2,333 | 10.1016/j.kint.2023.10.018 |
| 2 | A Study to Evaluate Psychological Distress and Self-Esteem Among Patients with Hemodialysis | Yogesh Kumar C - | Yogesh Kumar C | International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology (IJISRT), India | International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology (IJISRT) | 1,725 | 10.38124/ijisrt/ijisrt24mar1998 |
| 3 | Executive summary of the KDIGO 2024 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease: known knowns and known unknowns | Adeera Levin, Sofia B Ahmed, Juan Jesus Carrero, Bethany Foster, Anna Francis, Rasheeda K Hall, Will G Herrington, Guy Hill, Lesley A Inker, Rümeyza Kazancıoğlu, Edmund Lamb, Peter Lin, Magdalena Madero, Natasha McIntyre, Kelly Morrow, Glenda Roberts, Dharshana Sabanayagam, Elke Schaeffner, Michael Shlipak, Rukshana Shroff, Navdeep Tangri, Teerawat Thanachayanont, Ifeoma Ulasi, Germaine Wong, Chih-Wei Yang, Luxia Zhang, Karen A Robinson, Lisa Wilson, Renee F Wilson, Bertram L Kasiske, Michael Cheung, Amy Earley, Paul E Stevens | Adeera Levin, Paul E. Stevens | University of British Columbia, Canada | Kidney International | 149 | 10.1016/j.kint.2023.10.016 |
| 4 | A Randomized Trial of Intravenous Amino Acids for Kidney Protection | Giovanni Landoni, Fabrizio Monaco, Lian Kah Ti, Martina Baiardo Redaelli, Nikola Bradic, Marco Comis, Yuki Kotani, Claudio Brambillasca, Eugenio Garofalo, Anna Mara Scandroglio, Cristina Viscido, Gianluca Paternoster, Annalisa Franco, Sabrina Porta, Federica Ferrod, Maria Grazia Calabrò, Antonio Pisano, Igor Vendramin, Gaia Barucco, Francesco Federici, Luca Severi, Alessandro Belletti, Andrea Cortegiani, Andrea Bruni, Carola Galbiati, Angelo Covino, Ekaterina Baryshnikova, Giuseppe Giardina, Maria Venditto, Daniel Kroeller, Cristina Nakhnoukh, Lorenzo Mantovani, Simona Silvetti, Margherita Licheri, Fabio Guarracino, Rosetta Lobreglio, Ambra Licia Di Prima, Stefano Fresilli, Rosa Labanca, Marta Mucchetti, Rosalba Lembo, Rosario Losiggio, Tiziana Bove, Marco Ranucci, Evgeny Fominskiy, Federico Longhini, Alberto Zangrillo, Rinaldo Bellomo, PROTECTION Study Group | Giovanni Landoni | IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Italy | New England Journal of Medicine | 130 | 10.1056/nejmoa2403769 |
| 5 | The glycolytic enzyme PFKFB3 drives kidney fibrosis through promoting histone lactylation-mediated NF-κB family activation | Yating Wang, Hongyu Li, Simin Jiang, Dongying Fu, Xiaohui Lu, Miaoqing Lu, Yi Li, Dan Luo, Kefei Wu, Yiping Xu, Guanglan Li, Yi Zhou, Yiming Zhou, Wei Chen, Qinghua Liu, Haiping Mao | Wei Chen, Qinghua Liu, Haiping Mao | Sun Yat-sen University, China | Kidney International | 91 | 10.1016/j.kint.2024.04.016 |
| 6 | Social Risk Profile and Cardiovascular‐Kidney‐Metabolic Syndrome in US Adults | Jingkuo Li, Lubi Lei, Wei Wang, Wenbo Ding, Yanwu Yu, Boxuan Pu, Yue Peng, Yinchu Li, Lihua Zhang, Yuanlin Guo | Jingkuo Li, Lubi Lei, Lihua Zhang, Yuan-Lin Guo | Fuwai Hospital, China | Journal of the American Heart Association | 84 | 10.1161/jaha.124.034996 |
| 7 | Finerenone and Kidney Outcomes in Patients With Heart Failure | Finnian R Mc Causland, Muthiah Vaduganathan, Brian L Claggett, Ian J Kulac, Akshay S Desai, Pardeep S Jhund, Alasdair D Henderson, Meike Brinker, Robert Perkins, Markus F Scheerer, Patrick Schloemer, Carolyn S P Lam, Michele Senni, Sanjiv J Shah, Adriaan A Voors, Faiez Zannad, Bertram Pitt, John J V McMurray, Scott D Solomon | Finnian R. Mc Causland | Brigham and Women's Hospital, United States | Journal of the American College of Cardiology | 62 | 10.1016/j.jacc.2024.10.091 |
| 8 | Diabetes and Renal Complications: An Overview on Pathophysiology, Biomarkers and Therapeutic Interventions | Rajesh Jha, Sara Lopez-Trevino, Haritha R Kankanamalage, Jay C Jha | Jay C. Jha | Kansas College of Osteopathic Medicine, United States | Biomedicines | 59 | 10.3390/biomedicines12051098 |
| 9 | Albuminuria: An Underappreciated Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease | Joshua I Barzilay, Youssef M K Farag, Jeffrey Durthaler | Joshua I Barzilay | Kaiser Permanente of Georgia, United States | Journal of the American Heart Association | 53 | 10.1161/jaha.123.030131 |
| 10 | IL-6 inhibition with clazakizumab in patients receiving maintenance dialysis: a randomized phase 2b trial | Glenn M Chertow, Anna Marie Chang, G Michael Felker, Mark Heise, Elena Velkoska, Bengt Fellström, David M Charytan, Regina Clementi, C Michael Gibson, Shaun G Goodman, Meg Jardine, Adeera Levin, Yuliya Lokhnygina, Jenny Mears, Roxana Mehran, Peter Stenvinkel, Angela Yee-Moon Wang, David C Wheeler, Carmine Zoccali, Paul M Ridker, Kenneth W Mahaffey, Pierluigi Tricoci, Myles Wolf | Glenn M. Chertow | Stanford University, United States | Nature Medicine | 52 | 10.1038/s41591-024-03043-1 |
| 11 | Physical activity and exercise in chronic kidney disease: consensus statements from the Physical Exercise Working Group of the Italian Society of Nephrology | Yuri Battaglia, Federica Baciga, Francesca Bulighin, Maria Amicone, Giovanni Mosconi, Alda Storari, Rachele Brugnano, Marco Pozzato, Daria Motta, Claudia D'alessandro, Claudia Torino, Francesca Mallamaci, Adamasco Cupisti, Filippo Aucella, Alessandro Capitanini, Working Group of Physical Exercise of Italian Society of Nephrology | Yuri Battaglia | University of Verona, Italy | Journal of Nephrology | 52 | 10.1007/s40620-024-02049-9 |
| 12 | Risk Factors of Chronic Kidney Disease Progression: Between Old and New Concepts | Francesca Mallamaci, Giovanni Tripepi | Francesca Mallamaci | Grande Ospedale Metropolitano, Italy | Journal of Clinical Medicine | 48 | 10.3390/jcm13030678 |
| 13 | Arteriovenous Access for Hemodialysis | Charmaine E Lok, Thomas S Huber, Ani Orchanian-Cheff, Dheeraj K Rajan | Charmaine E Lok | University Health Network, Canada | JAMA | 47 | 10.1001/jama.2024.0535 |
| 14 | Sepsis-associated acute kidney injury: recent advances in enrichment strategies, sub-phenotyping and clinical trials | Matthieu Legrand, Sean M Bagshaw, Pavan K Bhatraju, Azra Bihorac, Ellen Caniglia, Ashish K Khanna, John A Kellum, Jay Koyner, Michael O Harhay, Fernando G Zampieri, Alexander Zarbock, Kevin Chung, Kathleen Liu, Ravindra Mehta, Peter Pickkers, Abigail Ryan, Juliane Bernholz, Laura Dember, Martin Gallagher, Patrick Rossignol, Marlies Ostermann | Matthieu Legrand | UCSF, United States | Critical Care | 44 | 10.1186/s13054-024-04877-4 |
| 15 | Projecting the economic burden of chronic kidney disease at the patient level (Inside CKD): a microsimulation modelling study | Steven Chadban, Mustafa Arıcı, Albert Power, Mai-Szu Wu, Francesco Saverio Mennini, José Javier Arango Álvarez, Juan Jose Garcia Sanchez, Salvatore Barone, Joshua Card-Gowers, Alexander Martin, Lise Retat | Juan José García Sánchez | Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Australia | EClinicalMedicine | 42 | 10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102615 |
| 16 | Lifestyle factors and their relative contributions to longitudinal progression of cardio-renal-metabolic multimorbidity: a prospective cohort study | Ning Zhang, Xiang Liu, Lele Wang, Yuan Zhang, Yi Xiang, Jiajie Cai, Hao Xu, Xiong Xiao, Xing Zhao | Xiong Xiao | Sichuan University, China | Cardiovascular Diabetology | 41 | 10.1186/s12933-024-02347-3 |
| 17 | Association of systemic immune-inflammation index and systemic inflammation response index with chronic kidney disease: observational study of 40,937 adults | Peixian Huang, Yanpei Mai, Jun Zhao, Yushan Yi, Yaqing Wen | Yanpei Mai | South China University of Technology, China | Inflammation Research | 41 | 10.1007/s00011-024-01861-0 |
| 18 | Haemodiafiltration versus haemodialysis for kidney failure: an individual patient data meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials | Robin W M Vernooij, Carinna Hockham, Giovanni Strippoli, Suetonia Green, Jörgen Hegbrant, Andrew Davenport, Claudia Barth, Bernard Canaud, Mark Woodward, Peter J Blankestijn, Michiel L Bots, CONVINCE Scientific Committee, HDF Pooling Project Investigators | Robin W.M. Vernooij, Robin WM Vernooij | University Medical Center Utrecht, Netherlands | The Lancet | 41 | 10.1016/s0140-6736(24)01859-2 |
| 19 | Epidemiological shifts in chronic kidney disease: a 30-year global and regional assessment | Kaili Qin, Jianbo Qing, Qian Wang, Yafeng Li | Yafeng Li | Shanxi Medical University, China | BMC Public Health | 40 | 10.1186/s12889-024-21065-9 |
| 20 | Potentials of Natural Antioxidants in Reducing Inflammation and Oxidative Stress in Chronic Kidney Disease | On Ying Angela Lee, Alex Ngai Nick Wong, Ching Yan Ho, Ka Wai Tse, Angela Zaneta Chan, George Pak-Heng Leung, Yiu Wa Kwan, Martin Ho Yin Yeung | Martin Ho Yin Yeung | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China | Antioxidants | 37 | 10.3390/antiox13060751 |

## Topic trends

### What Topics Define the Class of 2026?

The informative word cloud across the 50 highest 18-month-cited dialysis and renal disease management papers reveals a field centered on kidney function assessment, progressive CKD phenotypes, and cardiometabolic comorbidity—not generic dialysis terminology. Estimated glomerular filtration rate leads at 11 of 50 papers (normalized frequency 0.22), followed by renal fibrosis (7 papers, 0.14) and albuminuria (7 papers, 0.14). Diabetic kidney disease (5 papers, 0.10), type 2 diabetes mellitus (5 papers, 0.10), and urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (5 papers, 0.10) cluster tightly with sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (4 papers, 0.08) and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (3 papers, 0.06), reflecting the citation impact of cardiometabolic CKD trials and updated KDIGO Clinical Practice Guideline work (3 papers, 0.06). Oxidative stress (4 papers, 0.08), systemic immune-inflammation index (3 papers, 0.06), and systemic inflammation response index (3 papers, 0.06) signal rising inflammatory biomarker framing. Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis each appear in 3 Class of 2026 papers (0.06), alongside kidney transplantation (3 papers, 0.06), acute kidney injury (3 papers, 0.06), and proximal tubular epithelial cells (3 papers, 0.06). Mid-sized terms emphasize cystatin C, serum creatinine, CKD stage 3–5, and National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey epidemiology. After informativeness filtering, broad labels such as chronic kidney disease and dialysis-dependent kidney failure are excluded, highlighting specific functional, fibrotic, and albuminuric mechanisms over umbrella disease names.

*Leading research themes*

### How Did Topics Shift from the Class of 2025 to the Class of 2026?

Comparing normalized concept frequencies between the Class of 2025 (2023 publications) and Class of 2026 (2024 publications) cohorts shows a reorientation of early-high-impact renal disease research toward kidney function metrics, fibrosis biology, and inflammatory phenotyping—and away from dialysis-modality prominence. Estimated glomerular filtration rate exhibited the largest gain (+0.12 normalized frequency; 5 versus 11 papers), followed by renal fibrosis (+0.08; 3 versus 7), albuminuria (+0.06; 4 versus 7), type 2 diabetes mellitus (+0.06; 2 versus 5), urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (+0.06; 2 versus 5), and oxidative stress (+0.06; 1 versus 4). The topic evolution card underscores that Class of 2026 bars extend furthest for eGFR, renal fibrosis, albuminuria, and UACR—topics aligned with KDIGO 2024 guideline updates and early CKD risk stratification. Systemic inflammation response index and systemic immune-inflammation index each appeared in 3 Class of 2026 papers and were absent from the Class of 2025 cohort (+0.06 each), alongside rising CKD stage 3–5 and glycemic control terminology. Conversely, peritoneal dialysis showed the steepest decline (−0.12; 9 versus 3 papers), followed by hemodialysis (−0.08; 7 versus 3), reflecting reduced dominance of modality-specific papers among top-cited 2024 work. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors declined modestly (−0.02; 5 versus 4 papers), while diabetic kidney disease remained stable. Together, these shifts suggest that the most-cited 2024 papers emphasize early CKD assessment, fibrotic and albuminuric mechanisms, and inflammatory biomarkers over dialysis delivery and modality comparisons.

*How topics shifted year over year*

## Cite this ranking

```
Pepkio Research Index (PRI). Topics and Trends in Most Cited Dialysis and Renal Disease Management Papers, Class of 2026. https://pri.pepkio.com/top-papers/dialysis-and-renal-disease-management/2026. Accessed 2026-07-14.

Zheng Su, Tinsley Li, Thematic Shifts in Early-High-Impact Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics Research: A Bibliometric and Semantic Analysis. bioRxiv 2026.07.04.736459; doi: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.07.04.736459
```