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The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases provided a $408,000 grant to Thomas P. Erlinger, who works at University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The grant has been given with the aim of advancing Erlinger's research on inflammation, the progression of kidney disease, as well as incident cardiovascular disease.

It is worth mentioning that both chronic kidney disease and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease have the same forerunners. The markers of inflammation proved to be highly predictive of events linked with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in patients that do not have chronic kidney disease. Despite the above mentioned, Erlinger said that the effective role of inflammation in the setting moderately impaired renal function has gained quite little attention.

Thomas P. Erlinger looks forward to put into light the role of inflammation linked to the progression of chronic kidney disease. He also plans to focus on the appearance of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events. This will be available thanks to the specimens that were collected during the study on African-American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension.

"Ultimately, results of this study should enhance our understanding of risk factors and processes that determine the progression of kidney disease and the risk of cardiovascular disease among African-Americans with hypertension. Such results might eventually lead to new strategies that delay or prevent end-stage kidney disease and its complications" mentioned the professor from University of Texas Medical Branch.