Lower Blood Pressure May be Help Sicker Kidney Patients

Standard goal may not be low enough for those with protein in their urine, study finds, Aggressive treatment to lower high blood pressure may help protect kidney function and prevent the need for dialysis in some black patients with chronic kidney disease.
That's the decision of a study published Sept. 2 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"This is not a solution. We have a lot more to figure out. But our proof suggests that we have a way to at least delay or possibly even prevent end-stage kidney disease in some patients," study leader Dr. Lawrence J. Appel, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a Hopkins news release.
The study of 1,094 black patients with chronic kidney disease and high blood pressure found that forceful treatment to lower high blood pressure to about 130/80 provided the most benefit to sicker kidney disease patients those with protein in their urine.
In this group of patients, there was about a 25 percent decrease in end-stage kidney disease compared to those who achieved a blood pressure goal of 140/90, which is the standard of doctors when treating patients with high blood pressure.
Among patients who weren't as sick those with little or no protein in their urine efforts to lower blood pressure had little effect on kidney disease succession.
Appel said, "This has always been a hot topic: Is a lower blood pressure target better at preserving kidney function than the standard goal? The answer is a trained yes, notably in people who have some protein in their urine".
The results suggest that doctors should check for protein in the urine before they decide the blood pressure goal for blacks with kidney disease, he added.

Throat cancer rates rise in men

Throat cancer cases have soared by 50 per cent in men in the last 25 years due to fatness and bad diet, researchers have found. Back in the eighties approximately 2,600 men were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer every year but now the figure is more than 5,100.
The most theatrical rise was among men in their 50s, as rates increased by 67 per cent over the same period.
Rates in women also rose, but simply by eight per cent, from 5.1 to 5.5 per 100,000 people. “But we think the obesity outbreak may be a big reason behind the augment. We know that being overweight considerably increases the risk of adenocarcinoma – the main type of oesophageal cancer that’s on the up. Our shifting diets are also likely to be influencing the rise with people eating less fruit and vegetables."
In 1983, 9.6 in every 100,000 men were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer but now 14.4 in every 100,000 men are diagnosed with the disease – an enlarge of 50 per cent. Oesophageal cancer is the ninth most familiar cancer in the UK. In 2007, around 8,000 people were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, counting 5,226 men.
The risk of rising the disease increases with age and affects very few people under 40. Oesophageal cancer is one of the most complicated cancers to detect and treat, with only eight per cent of people with the disease ongoing at least five years. Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “These new figures are principally concerning as oesophageal cancer is a very difficult cancer to treat.
"Oesophageal cancer rates have risen considerably in the UK compared with many other Western countries so we need to determine the underlying causes.
"To struggle the poor survival rate for oesophageal cancer, Cancer Research UK is funding research to find new ways to identify the disease earlier and improve treatment so that more people beat the disease.”