Reducing cardiovascular risks for chronic kidney disease patients

Many people with chronic kidney disease will die of cardiovascular problems after their kidney function seriously deteriorates or they suffer kidney failure, medical experts said.

Chronic kidney disease, which affects 120 million people in China, is a serious ailment, as it can cause patients' kidney function to degenerate continuously and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. There are nearly 850 million people with chronic kidney disease in the world.

But the diagnosis rate is very low, as 90 percent of patients are not aware of the disease, which shows no significant symptoms in the early stages. Hence, chronic kidney disease is also called a "silent killer."

Dr Hou Fanfan from Nanfang Hospital and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences said that medical experts from home and abroad are stepping up research to reduce kidney patients' risk of negative cardiovascular occurrence.

"An innovative diabetes drug, sodium-dependent glucose transporter 2 inhibitors, was found to have the effect of reducing such patients' mortality and hospitalization risk due to kidney function deterioration, kidney failure and cardiovascular diseases," Hou said. "It is a promising discovery."

An international multi-center study with 35 research projects covering some 35,000 patients worldwide has been carried out to study the inhibitors' potential benefit on cardiovascular, kidney and organ protection.

One project has found the inhibitors can reduce chronic kidney disease patients' risk of kidney function deterioration, cardiovascular events and death by 39 percent.

The results of the research were published by leading journal the New England Journal of Medicine.