Cuban Nephrology Institute carries out 32 research projects

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 9 (ACN) Cuban Nephrology Institute Doctor Abelardo Buch Lopez, in Havana, is carrying out 32 research projects aimed at branches of the specialty such as chronic kidney disease, dialysis, transplantation, clinical nephrology and pathology.

Among the most recent investigations are those on patients convalescing from COVID-19, looking for renal damage, since this coronavirus can endanger the patients' lives, Dr. Raime Antonio Bacallao Mendez, head of teaching and research, told the Cuban News Agency (ACN).

The Nephrology specialist pointed out that this work is in progress and the first phase, whose results have been important, has already been concluded, and the second phase, which would be after one year of infection of the patients, is scheduled to begin next April.

For her part, Dr. Yamile Garcia Villar, head of the Center of Diagnostic Means and Technology of the aforementioned institution of the ministry of public health and one of the researchers of the project, explained to ACN that the study began last October and included a hundred patients with six months of convalescence.

She specified that in the first phase of the research, based on international information and referring to risk, damage and sequelae, markers of renal and persistent inflammatory deterioration were determined, and in the second phase it will be assessed the damage caused by the infection of the patients.
The kidney is one of the organs where the virus penetrates, emphasized the specialist, who advised paying more attention to everything related to renal function and the markers of damage because, although the results are preliminary, a significant deterioration has been observed, she reiterated.
Some 200 patients with preponderantly calcium lithiasis are included in the clinical trial, and results are expected later this year, Bacallao Mendez concluded.