Sagar Nigwekar, MBBS specializes in management of patients with calciphylaxis, vascular calcification, mineral bone disease in kidney disease, kidney stones, and hyponatremia.
Dr. Nigwekar is an Assistant in Medicine (Nephrology) at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He received his medical degree from the University of Mumbai, India and then completed residency in Internal Medicine at the Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, NY. He then was selected for nephrology fellowship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital's Joint Nephrology Fellowship program. During nephrology fellowship, Dr. Nigwekar also completed a Masters in Clinical Sciences from the Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Nigwekar specializes in management of patients with calciphylaxis, vascular calcification, mineral bone disease in kidney disease, and nephrolithiasis.
Dr. Nigwekar conducts patient-oriented research in the areas of calciphylaxis, vascular calcification and hyponatremia. Dr. Nigwekar has authored over 50 peer-reviewed research articles in high-impact journals. His research is funded by prestigious organizations including the American Kidney Fund and the National Kidney Foundation.
Dr. Nigwekar has many years of experience in teaching medical students, residents, fellows. He is a recipient of numerous institutional teaching awards. He regularly teaches at the Massachusetts General Hospital's Annual Internal Medicine Course. He has authored a book on patient education titled as "Top 5 Questions to Ask Your Doctor".
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Mass General Renal Associates
165 Cambridge Street
Suite 302
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-726-5050
Medical Education
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My research is primarily focused on the areas of calcific uremic arteriolopathy (CUA), a.k.a. calciphylaxis and vascular calcification in dialysis patients.
CUA, a dermal arteriolar calcification disorder seen in dialysis patients, has significant morbidity associated with complicated wounds and non-remitting pain and 60-80% one-year mortality. During my nephrology training, I saw many CUA cases and was astounded by the unmet research needs in the CUA field linked to: 1) Unclear pathogenesis and risk factors, 2) Non-existence of circulating diagnostic biomarkers considering the risk of non-healing ulceration from skin biopsy (the current diagnostic gold-standard) and, 3) Absence of effective therapy.
I am interested in understanding the risk factors and pathobiology of CUA, and to develop and examine strategies to effectively diagnose and treat CUA. In addition, I aim to apply the knowledge gained from CUA research to investigate other forms of vascular calcifications in dialysis patients. Over 70% of dialysis patients have coronary artery, aortic or valvular calcifications, and recent literature attributes 50% of cardiovascular deaths in dialysis patients to vascular calcifications. Although, Virchow described the predisposition to vascular calcifications in kidney disease over a century ago, the biology of vascular calcification remains unclear and this limits development and evaluation of treatment interventions. I believe that CUA research will serve as a high-speed template to understand the biology of vascular calcification and accelerate the T2 translational research in this field.
