Iván Méndez-López, clinician and predoctoral researcher at the Neuroepigenetics Unit from Navarrabiomed - IdiSNA will present his doctoral thesis by the Public University of Navarra next Monday, December 19, at 12:00 in the assembly hall of Navarrabiomed.

The doctoral work, which is entitled "Blood pressure targets for hypertension in people with chronic renal disease", has been developed in the Internal Medicine Service of the University Hospital of Navarra and Navarrabiomed, under the direction of Doctors Juan Erviti López and Luis Carlos Saiz Fernández, researchers of the Innovation and Organization Unit of the Navarra Health Service-Osasunbidea. 

Research development

So far there is no established evidence about the optimal blood pressure figures in people with arterial hypertension (AHT) and chronic kidney disease. Using the proven methodology of the Cochrane organization, Méndez-López's work has carried out the first systematic review that addresses this issue with individualized patient data. After the inclusion of 7,348 patients from six clinical trials, it is concluded that an intensive reduction in blood pressure does not provide greater health benefits than those obtained with a standard reduction in blood pressure (BP) in patients with AHT and chronic kidney disease. The relevance of these conclusions suggests that the current recommendations of BP targets for this population should be amended by the international clinical practice guidelines. 

Dissemination of results

The work carried out has led to a scientific publication in 2019, in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), the main journal and database of systematic reviews in health care: “Blood pressure targets for hypertension in people with chronic renal disease”. In addition, partial results of the study have been disseminated at the thirty-first European Meeting on Hypertension and Cardiovascular Protection, held in June 2022 in Athens, Greece.