Health Discoveries in General Health News
Blood pressure treatment may delay kidney disease
September 3, 2010
Researchers may have found a method of delaying end-stage kidney disease in some African Americans by pushing blood pressure below recommended levels, a Johns Hopkins research team found.
By treating hypertension intensively, the researchers found they were able to decrease the number of patients who lost kidney function and required dialysis, according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers found the sicker patients benefited most from the aggressive blood pressure treatment. Those who had little or no protein in their urine - or patients who were not as sick - saw little change in how their kidney disease progressed. Those with protein in their urine who were considered the sickest patients saw a 25 percent reduction in end-stage kidney disease.
Called the African-American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension (AASK), the research followed nearly 1,100 hypertensive African Americans with chronic kidney disease from about nine to 12 years.
The kidney donation program at the Smith Institute for Urology in New Hyde Park, New York, is the first in the world to use LESS Donor Nephrectomy, a less invasive process that allows the kidney to be removed through a single small incision in the abdomen. The institute is part of the North Shore-LIJ Health System.
By treating hypertension intensively, the researchers found they were able to decrease the number of patients who lost kidney function and required dialysis, according to the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Researchers found the sicker patients benefited most from the aggressive blood pressure treatment. Those who had little or no protein in their urine - or patients who were not as sick - saw little change in how their kidney disease progressed. Those with protein in their urine who were considered the sickest patients saw a 25 percent reduction in end-stage kidney disease.
Called the African-American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension (AASK), the research followed nearly 1,100 hypertensive African Americans with chronic kidney disease from about nine to 12 years.
The kidney donation program at the Smith Institute for Urology in New Hyde Park, New York, is the first in the world to use LESS Donor Nephrectomy, a less invasive process that allows the kidney to be removed through a single small incision in the abdomen. The institute is part of the North Shore-LIJ Health System.