(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research suggests that as many as 8 million
adults in the United States who have not yet been diagnosed with
hypertension or have early-stage hypertension also have kidney disease.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that 27.5
percent of people diagnosed with hypertension also had kidney disease, 13.4
percent with normal blood pressure had kidney disease, 17.3 percent with
early-stage hypertension had kidney disease and 22 percent who had
undiagnosed hypertension had kidney disease.
Researchers looked at over 18,000 participants using data collected from the
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2006.
Scientists based kidney disease rates on the testing of creatinine levels in
the blood and proteins in the urine.
The study’s lead author, nephrology instructor at the Johns Hopkins
University School of Medicine Deidra C. Crews, M.D., Sc.M., says her
findings should prompt physicians and patients to be more aware of the
underlying disease.
“For people who have pre-hypertension, an alarm should go off in their
physicians that says, 'Maybe this person should be tested for kidney
disease,'” Dr. Crews was quoted as saying. “Ppatients should know that
having even pre-hypertension is a big risk factor for kidney disease and
they may need to make lifestyle changes.”
SOURCE: Hypertension, April 2010
