Dinna N. Cruz, MD, MPH

Dinna Cruz, MD, MPH, is a board-certified nephrologist. Her expertise is treating patients with both acute and chronic kidney diseases caused by all types of underlying conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, polycystic kidney disease, glomerulonephritis, lupus, and sepsis. She specializes in treating people with acute kidney injury (also known as "kidney attack") and cardiorenal syndrome (individuals affected by both heart and kidney disease).

As a professor in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Cruz instructs medical students, residents, and fellows at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Her research interests include acute kidney injury and sepsis, including dialysis in critically ill patients and extracorporeal therapies for endotoxin removal. She has authored or co-authored over 100 scientific articles, lectures internationally on acute kidney injury and cardiorenal syndrome, and is part of the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative and Acute Kidney Injury Network.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, Dr. Cruz served as the director of research at the International Renal Research Institute of Vicenza in Italy. She was also an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.

She completed her fellowship in nephrology at the Yale University School of Medicine and her residency at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Dr. Cruz earned her medical degree from the College of Medicine and her MPH in epidemiology from the College of Public Health, both at the University of the Philippines Manila. She is board certified in nephrology.

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For more information, see Nephrology / Hypertension.