Prof.
Parving from the Department of Endocrinology at Rigshospitalet is a key
figure in international diabetes research. Not least thanks to his
research results from the past 40 years, kidney patients with diabetes
now live three-times longer on average.
For his persistent
efforts for many years, and particularly for his research projects,
which have changed diabetes treatment as well as prevention of sequelae
fundamentally, he is now receiving the prestigious, international G. B.
Morgagni Prize.
Prevention of kidney disease
Diabetes
patients have a considerably higher risk of serious sequelae, leading
to huge costs for the economy as well as for the individual patient in
terms of reduced quality of life and greatly increased risk of premature
death. Diabetic kidney disease is the most common cause of chronic
renal failure, requiring dialysis treatment or even a kidney transplant.
However, in 1983, Prof. Parving was one of the first in the
world to demonstrate that it is possible to postpone chronic renal
failure in diabetes patients by lowering their blood pressure. This has
since become a standard treatment throughout the world, and Prof.
Parving has concentrated his research on improving this treatment.
In
a later study, Prof. Parving has shown that it is possible to lower the
risk of developing diabetic kidney disease by a further 50-70% with
preventive treatment to reduce blood pressure. The next logical step was
to examine whether it was possible to identify diabetics with a
particularly high risk of developing kidney diseases by taking earlier
action. Prof. Parving succeeded with this and now physicians are able to
identify the about 40% of all diabetics who are at risk of developing
kidney diseases, and thereby initiate early preventive treatment.
Intensive early treatment
Moreover,
Prof. Parving has been involved in the planning and execution of the
long-term research project entitled the Steno-2 Study. Over a period of
13 years, this study showed that early and targeted intervention with
high-blood-pressure medication that lowers the fat content in the blood
as well as aspirin can reduce the risk of kidney and eye diseases,
non-fatal heart diseases and premature death by up to 50%. This
preventive treatment has also become standard.
Since Prof.
Parving began his career as a researcher in 1975, there has been major
progress for diabetes patients. At that time, the average survival rate
for patients with diabetic kidney diseases was about seven years from
the time of diagnosis. Today more than half the patients are still alive
after 21 years.
Furthermore, even though the number of diabetes
patients in Denmark has more than doubled since 2002, the number of
diabetics in dialysis treatment has remained stable.
This is due to broad, international research efforts which have been highly influenced by Prof. Parving's work.
Professor Hans-Henrik Parving in brief
Prof.
Hans-Henrik Parving qualified as a physician in 1969 and as DMSc at the
University of Copenhagen in 1975. In 2010, he was the first European
ever to receive the prestigious Scribner Award from the American Society
of Nephrology. He had already received many other national and
international awards; for example the Danish H.C. Hagedorn Prize.
Prof.
Parving has published more than 575 scientific publications in
international journals. He has received great recognition - also from
the international community - and he has served as a supervisor for more
than 20 medical doctoral dissertations.
The G.B. Morgagni Prize in brief
The
G.B. Morgagni Prize is awarded every other year to diabetes researchers
from all over the world. The prize has been awarded since 1984 and was
named after the Italian Professor Giovanni Battista Morgagni who is
known as the father of modern pathological anatomy.
The prize comes with a gold medal and EUR 20,000.
The award will be presented to Professor Parving at a ceremony in the Italian city Padua on 31 October this year.