Physician-scientist Iris Beldhuis will investigate whether patients with heart failure and kidney problems could still be treated with heart failure medication. For this research, Beldhuis has received a Dekker grant of 160,000 euros from the Dutch Heart Foundation.
About 242,000 people in the Netherlands live with heart failure. In patients with heart failure, the heart functions less well, making it harder to pump the blood around. There are several drugs that can support the heart and improve its function. This allows the patient to live longer and in better health.
Kidney problems in heart failure patients
About half of people with heart failure develop kidney function problems. Scientists do not yet know how well heart failure drugs work in patients with poor kidney function. Because many heart failure drugs put an extra burden on the kidneys, doctors now often stop or never even start treatment in these patients. Beldhuis thinks it may actually be beneficial to start or continue treatment in patients with poor kidney function.
“It is a shame that new medication for heart failure is underutilized, because we don’t know enough about their effect on the kidneys”
Treating patients with heart failure and kidney problems
Beldhuis will study how well heart failure drugs work in patients who also have or are developing poor kidney function. She thinks especially those people could benefit most from heart failure drugs. “In recent years, wonderful new heart failure drugs have been discovered. These can really improve patients’ lives. In developing these new drugs, we have been very careful: they have not been tested in patients with heart failure and poor kidney function. As a result, we don’t really know how these drugs work in this group of patients. It is a shame that these drugs are underused because too little is known, especially about their effect on the kidneys. The fact that kidney function deteriorates a little with treatment may actually mean that the treatment is working. In previous research we have shown that the drugs seem to work better if it has an effect on the kidneys, but nothing is yet known about the exact effect, especially in patients with very poor kidney function. This is what we are going to find out using the latest techniques.”
Two years of research for better treatment
There are different forms of heart failure. Over the next two years, Beldhuis wants to find out which heart failure patients are more prone to developing kidney problems, how this differs between different forms of heart failure and between men and women. She also wants to find out whether developing kidney function problems after starting treatment means that the heart failure medication is working. By doing so, she aims to ensure that soon more people with heart failure will receive the optimal treatment and therefore will be able to live longer, and in better health.
