Program Directors
 

Supervisor: Dr. Gregory Hundemer
Award: KRESCENT Summer Studentship
Institution: University of Ottawa/The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Year: 2025
 
Project Title: Investigating the prevalence of white coat hypertension and masked hypertension: a systematic review
 
Biography:
My name is Abbey Retta and I am a medical student at the University of Ottawa. Born and raised in St. Catharines, it has always been my dream to become a physician and since then I developed an interest in internal medicine and its various branches such as Nephrology. I joined KRESCENT because I wanted to contribute to research that can help answer questions related to kidney disease and also inspire future researchers. My research interests are in hypertension and dialysis technology. I look forward to one day taking part in research that can shed light on underserved groups that are greatly affected by kidney disease. In my spare time I also enjoy sports (e.g. soccer, basketball, boxing) and history.

Lay Summary:
My study is focused on researching the prevalence of white coat hypertension (WCHT) and masked hypertension (MH). WCHT refers to a patient having higher blood pressure in a clinic setting than at home, and MH refers to a patient having normal blood pressure only in the clinic and higher at home. We are conducting a systematic review across all studies with relevant info on these two phenomena to identify how widespread it is, and also what are the social determinants that are involved. For examples, looking at demographics such as sex, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, which could reveal differences between these groups that play a factor in blood pressure readings. Our systematic review focuses on study designs such as cross-sectional, cohorts, and prospective studies, and they must include adults only.