Insigneo Institute for Healthcare Technology

When people with diabetes and high blood pressure develop chronic kidney disease, determining which condition is damaging the kidneys often requires an invasive biopsy. To evaluate whether this distinction could be made without biopsy, researchers extended a whole-body vascular model with a detailed renal network and used virtual clinical trials to identify cardiovascular biomarkers that differentiate diabetic from hypertensive kidney disease. Key findings included: 🔹 The pulsatility index measured in the main renal artery showed strong diagnostic discrimination, correctly distinguishing diabetic kidney disease from hypertensive kidney disease in most cases. 🔹 Combining pulsatility index with resistive index substantially improved classification performance. 🔹 A three-biomarker combination based on mean, systolic, and diastolic blood flow rates achieved the highest predictive accuracy. If validated in clinical trials, these biomarker strategies could enable clinicians to identify the cause of kidney damage non-invasively. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲: link.springer.com/article/10… 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆: A Virtual Trial to Identify Cardiovascular Biomarkers for Differentiating Diabetic and Hypertensive Kidney Disease 𝗔𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘀: Ning Wang, @oneiseitwopi, @ivanbenvan, and Alberto Marzo @sheffielduni @insigneo @SheffUniEng @SheffMechEng @shefunihealth 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁: link.springer.com/journal/10…