NDT Plus Advance Access published online on September 8, 2008
NDT Plus, doi:10.1093/ndtplus/sfn146
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Advances in the cardiovascular assessment of patients with chronic kidney disease
1 Division of Vascular Medicine, School of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Nottingham Medical School
2 Department of Renal Medicine, Derby Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Derby, UK
Correspondence: Dr. Chris W. McIntyre, Department of Renal Medicine, Derby City General Hospital, Uttoxeter Rd, Derby, DE22 3NE, UK. Tel: +44-1332-789344; Fax: +44-1332-789352; E-mail: chris.mcintyre{at}nottingham.ac.uk
| Abstract |
|---|
Cardiovascular mortality is grossly elevated in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and is associated with a wide variety of structural and functional abnormalities. These issues have driven additional attempts to further characterise these abnormalities to elucidate the pathophysiology involved, assess individual risk and/or target and monitor therapies specifically directed at the cardiovascular (CV) system. This review aims to assess the techniques that are currently available for the study of the CV system. This includes conventional assessments of the whole CV system from heart to peripheral microcirculation (although not deal with VC assessment), as well as the key functional consequences relating to stress induced cardiovascular reserve, perfusion and vasoregulation. In addition this review will introduce a variety of techniques aiming to expand the envelope of conventional measurements.
Key Words: cardiovascular disease chronic kidney disease imaging metabolic stress monitoring
Received for publication May 27, 2008. Accepted for publication August 11, 2008.