Research sheds light on relationship between systolic blood pressure lowering and kidney problems

Risks associated with major adverse kidney events in people with type 2 diabetes are not boosted by intensive systolic blood pressure lowering, new study reveals. 

Throughout the trial, a group of academics assessed the impact of intensive and standard systolic blood pressure lowering.

More than 1,900 individuals took part in the study. The mean age of the participants was 63, the review has reported.

Cox proportional hazards regression models were used by the researchers to compare the hazard for the composite of dialysis, kidney transplant, sustained estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) <15 mL/min/1.73 m², serum creatinine >3.3 mg/dL, or a sustained eGFR decline ≥57% between the intensive (<120 mmHg) and standard (<140 mmHg) systolic blood pressure lowering arms.

The mean systolic blood pressure achieved after randomisation was 120 ± 14 and 134 ± 15 mmHg in the intensive and standard arms, according to the study.

The authors said: “The kidney composite outcome occurred at a rate of 9.5 and 7.2 events per 1,000 person-years in the intensive and standard blood pressure arms (hazard ratio [HR] 1.35 [95% CI 0.85–2.14]; P = 0.20).

“Intensive systolic blood pressure lowering did not affect the risk of moderately (HR 0.96 [95% CI 0.76–1.20]) or severely (HR 0.92 [95% CI 0.66–1.28]) increased albuminuria.”

The study can be found here.