Cardiovascular co-morbidity in chronic kidney disease:Current knowledge and future research needs

Chronic kidney disease(CKD) is recognised as a health concern globally and leads to high rates of morbidity,mortality and healthcare expenditure.CKD is itself an independent risk factor for unfavorable health outcomes that include cardiovascular disease(CVD).Coronary artery disease is the primary type of CVD in CKD patients and a significant cause of death among renal transplant patients.Traditional and non-traditional risk factors for CVD exist in patients with CKD.Traditional factors include smoking,hypertension,dyslipidemia and diabetes which are highly prevalent in CKD patients.Non-traditional risk factors of CKD are mainly uraemiaspecific and increase in prevalence as kidney function declines.Some examples of uraemia-specific risk factors that have been well documented include low levels of haemoglobin,albuminuria,and abnormal bone and mineral metabolism.Therapeutic interventions targeted at more traditional risk factors which contribute to CVD,have not had the desired effect on lowering CVD events and mortality in those suffering with CKD.Future research is warranted to delineate clear evidence to the benefit of modifying non-traditional risk factors.

Use of percutaneous nephrostomy and ureteral stenting in management of ureteral obstruction

The management options for ureteral obstruction are diverse, including retrograde ureteral stent insertion or antegrade nephrostomy placement, with or without eventual antegrade stent insertion. There is currently no consensus on the ideal treatment or treatment pathway for ureteral obstruction owing, in part, to the varied etiologies of obstruction and diversity of institutional practices. Additionally, different clinicians such as internists, urologists, oncologists and radiologists are often involved in the care of patients with ureteral obstruction and may have differing opinions concerning the best management strategy. The purpose of this manuscript was to review available literature that compares percutaneous nephrostomy placement vs ureteral stenting in the management of ureteral obstruction from both benign and malignant etiologies.

Metabolic syndrome and chronic kidney disease:Current status and future directions

Metabolic syndrome(Met S) is a term used to denote a combination of selected,widely prevalent cardiovascular disease(CVD)-related risk factors.Despite the ambiguous definition of Met S,it has been clearly associated with chronic kidney disease markers including reduced glomerular filtration rate,proteinuria and/or microalbuminuria,and histopathological markers such as tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis.However,the etiological role of Met S in chronic kidney disease(CKD) is less clear.The relationship between MetS and CKD is complex and bidirectional,and so is best understood when CKD is viewed as a common progressive illness along the course of which MetS,another common disease,may intervene and contribute.Possible mechanisms of renal injury include insulin resistance and oxidative stress,increased proinflammatory cytokine production,increased connective tissue growth and profibrotic factor production,increased microvascular injury,and renal ischemia.MetS also portends a higher CVD risk at all stages of CKD from early renal insufficiency to end-stage renal disease.Clinical interventions for MetS in the presence of CKD should include a combination of weight reduction,appropriate dietary modification and increase physical activity,plus targeting of individual CVD-related risk factors such as dysglycemia,hypertension,and dyslipidemia while conforming to relevant national societal guidelines.

Lipid abnormalities in kidney disease and management strategies

Patients with kidney diseases continue to experience significant cardiovascular disease(CVD) morbidity and mortality. Although there are many important risk factors playing a role in the pathogenesis of CVD in chronic kidney disease(CKD) patients, dyslipidemia(elevated triglycerides, elevated oxidized low-densitylipoprotein and low/dysfunctional low high-density) represents one of the modifiable risk factors. Renal failure patients have unique lipid abnormalities which not only have complex role in pathogenesis of CVD but also cause relative resistance to usual interventions. Most of the randomized trials have been in hemodialysis population and data from CKD non-dialysis, peritoneal dialysis and renal transplant populations is extremely limited. Compared to general population, evidence of mortality benefit of lipid lowering medications in CKD population is scarce. Future research should be directed towards establishing long term benefits and side effects of lipid lowering medications, through randomized trials, in CKD population.

Major comorbid disease processes associated with increased incidence of acute kidney injury

Acute kidney injury （AKI） is commonly seen amongst critically ill and hospitalized patients. Individuals with certain co-morbid diseases have an increased risk of developing AKI. Thus, recognizing the co-morbidities that predispose patients to AKI is important in AKI prevention and treatment. Some of the most common co-morbid disease processes that increase the risk of AKI are diabetes, cancer, cardiac surgery and human immunodefciency virus （HIV） acquired immune defciency syndrome （AIDS）. This review article identifies the increased risk of acquiring AKI with given co-morbid diseases. Furthermore, the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying AKI in relation to co-morbid diseases are discussed to understand how the risk of acquiring AKI is increased. This paper reviews the effects of various co-morbid diseases including： Diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and HIV AIDS, which all exhibit a significant increased risk of developing AKI. Amongst these co-morbid diseases, inflammation, the use of nephrotoxic agents, and hypoperfusion to the kidneys have been shown to be major pathological processes that predisposes individuals to AKI. The pathogenesis of kidney injury is complex, however, effective treatment of the co-morbid disease processes may reduce its risk. Therefore, improved management of co-morbid diseases may prevent some of the underlying pathology that contributes to the increased risk of developing AKI.

Baroreflex dysfunction in chronic kidney disease

Chronic kidney disease （CKD） patients have high cardiovascular mortality and morbidity. The presence of traditional and CKD related risk factors results in exaggerated vascular calcification in these patients. Vascular calcification is associated with reduced large arterial compliance and thus impaired barorefex sensi-tivity （BRS） resulting in augmented blood pressure （BP） variability and hampered BP regulation. Barorefex plays a vital role in short term regulation of BP. This review discusses the normal barorefex physiology, methods to assess baroreflex function, its determinants along with the prognostic significance of assessing BRS in CKD patients, available literature on BRS in CKD patients and the probable patho-physiology of barorefex dysfunction in CKD.

Podocyturia: Potential applications and current limitations

Chronic kidney disease is a prevalent condition that affects millions of people worldwide and is a major risk factor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The main diseases that lead to chronic kidney disease are frequent entities as diabetes mellitus, hypertension and glomerulopathies. One of the clinical markers of kidney disease progression is proteinuria. Moreover, the histological hallmark of kidney disease is sclerosis, located both in the glomerular and in the interstitial compartments. Glomerulosclerosis underscores an irreversible lesion that is clinically accompanied by proteinuria. In this regard, proteinuria and glomerular sclerosis are linked by the cell that has been conserved phylogenetically not only to prevent the loss of proteins in the urine, but also to maintain the health of the glomerular fltration barrier： The podocyte. It can then be concluded that the link between proteinuria, kidney disease progression and chronic kidney disease is mainly related to the podocyte. What is this situation due to？ The podocyte is unable to proliferate under normal conditions, and a complex molecular machinery exists to avoid its detachment and eventual loss. When the loss of podocytes in the urine, or podocyturia, is taking place and its glomerular absolute number decreased, glomerulosclerosis is the predominant histological feature in a kidney biopsy. Therefore, tissular podocyte shortage is the cause of proteinuria and chronic kidney disease. In this regard, podocyturia has been demonstrated to precede proteinuria, showing that the clinical mana-gement of proteinuria cannot be considered an early intervention. The identifcation of urinary podocytes could be an additional tool to be considered by nephrologists to assess the activity of glomerulopathies, for follow-up purposes and also to unravel the pathophysiology of podocyte detachment in order to tailor the therapy of glomerular diseases more appropriately.

Central blood pressure and chronic kidney disease

In this review, we focused on the relationship between central blood pressure and chronic kidney diseases(CKD). Wave reflection is a major mechanism that determines central blood pressure in patients with CKD. Recent medical technology advances have enabled non-invasive central blood pressure measurements. Clinical trials have demonstrated that compared with brachial blood pressure, central blood pressure is a stronger risk factor for cardiovascular(CV) and renal diseases. CKD is characterized by a diminished renal autoregulatory ability, an augmented direct transmission of systemic blood pressure to glomeruli, and an increase in proteinuria. Any elevation in central blood pressure accelerates CKD progression. In the kidney, interstitial inflammation induces oxidative stress to handle proteinuria. Oxidative stress facilitates atherogenesis, increases arterial stiffness and central blood pressure, and worsens the CV prognosis in patients with CKD. A vicious cycle exists between CKD and central blood pressure. To stop this cycle, vasodilator antihypertensive drugs and statins can reduce central blood pressure and oxidative stress. Even in early-stage CKD, mineral and bone disorders(MBD) may develop. MBD promotes oxidative stress, arteriosclerosis, and elevated central blood pressure in patients with CKD. Early intervention or prevention seems necessary to maintain vascular health in patients with CKD.

Arterial stiffness, vascular calcification and bone metabolism in chronic kidney disease

Patients with chronic kidney disease （CKD） have an extremely poor cardiovascular outcome. Arterial stiff-ness, a strong independent predictor of survival in CKD, is connected to arterial media calcification. A huge number of different factors contribute to the increased arterial calcification and stiffening in CKD, a process which is in parallel with impaired bone metabolism. This coincidence was demonstrated to be part of the direct inhibition of calcifcation in the vessels, which is a counterbalancing effect but also leads to low bone turnover. Due to the growing evidence, the defnition of “CKD mineral bone disorder” was created recently, un-derlining the strong connection of the two phenomena. In this review, we aim to demonstrate the mechanisms leading to increased arterial stiffness and the up-to date data of the bone-vascular axis in CKD. We over-view a list of the different factors, including inhibitors of bone metabolism like osteoprotegerin, fetuin-A, pyro-phosphates, matrix Gla protein, osteopontin, fbroblast growth factor 23 and bone morphogenic protein, which seem to play role in the progression of vascular calcif-cation and we evaluate their connection to impaired ar-terial stiffness in the mirror of recent scientifc results.

Why do young people with chronic kidney disease die early?

Cardiovascular disease poses the greatest risk of premature death seen among patients with chronic kidney disease(CKD).Up to 50% of mortality risk in the dialysis population is attributable to cardiovascular disease and the largest relative excess mortality is observed in younger patients.In early CKD,occlusive thrombotic coronary disease is common,but those who survive to reach end-stage renal failure requiring dialysis are more prone to sudden death attributable mostly to sudden arrhythmic events and heart failure related to left ventricular hypertrophy,coronary vascular calcification and electrolyte disturbances.In this review,we discuss the basis of the interaction of traditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease with various pathological processes such as endothelial dysfunction,oxidative stress,low grade chronic inflammation,neurohormonal changes and vascular calcification and stiffness which account for the structural and functional cardiac changes that predispose to excess morbidity and mortality in young people with CKD.

How and why chemicals from tobacco smoke can induce a rise in blood pressure

The primary objective of this article is to analyze the role of tobacco smoke compounds able to damage the cardiovascular system and, in particular, to interfere with blood pressure. They are products of tobacco plant leaves, like nicotine, thiocyanate and aromatic amines, and a chemical derived from cigarette com-bustion, carbon monoxide. Of the other thousands of chemicals, there is no clear evidence of cardiovascular damage. Nicotine and its major metabolite, cotinine, usually increase blood pressure by a direct action and an action stimulating neuro-humoral metabolites of the body as well as sympathetic stimulation. An indirect mechanism of damage exerted by elevated carboxyhe-moglobin concentrations is mediated by carbon mon-oxide, which, mainly induces arterial wall damage and, consequently, late rising in blood pressure by a toxic direct action on endothelial and blood cells. Thiocya-nate, in turn, reinforces the hypoxic effects determined by carbon monoxide. Aromatic amines, depending on their chemical structure, may exert toxic effects on the cardiovascular system although they have little effect on blood pressure. A rise in blood pressure determined by smoking compounds is a consequence of both their direct toxicity and the characteristics of their chemical chains that are strongly reactive with a large number of molecules for their spatial shape. In addition, a rise in blood pressure has been documented in individuals smoking a cigarette, acutely and chronically, with irre-versible artery wall alterations several years after begin-ning smoking. Since cigarette smoking has a worldwide diffusion, the evidence of this topic meets the interest of both the scientifc community and those individuals aiming to control smoking.

Physical activity, sedentary behavior, and long-term cardiovascular risk in young people: A review and discussion of methodology in prospective studies

The long-term effects of physical activity （PA） or sedentary behavior on cardiovascular health in young people are not well understood. In this study, we use a narrative format to review the evidence for a prospective association with adiposity and other well-established biological cardiovascular risk factors in healthy young people, considering only studies with at least 2 years of follow-up. PA appears to elicit a long-term beneficial effect on adiposity and particularly markers of cardiovascular health. With adiposity, however, a few studies also reported that higher levels of PA were associated with higher levels of adiposity. Time spent sedentary does not appear to be related to adiposity or markers of cardiovascular health independent of PA. We then discuss the uncertainties in the underlying causal chain and consider a number of alternative modeling strategies, which could improve our understanding of the relationship in future studies. Finally, we consider the current methodology for assessing PA and sedentary time.

Prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular and kidney disease in Brazilian healthy preschool children

AIM To investigate the prevalence of nutritional parameters of risk for cardiovascular disease(CVD) and kidney diseases in healthy preschool children.METHODS This is an observational cross-sectional study with 60 healthy children, of both genders, aged two to six years old and 56 mothers, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Preschool children and their families with regular activities at public schools were invited to paticipate in the study. The following characteristics were assessed: Socio-demographic condictions, clinical health, anthropometric, biochemical, lifestyle and data on food consumption. The 56 healthy children were divided into two groups, overweight(C1) and non-overweight(C2), as well as their mothers, respectively, in overweight(M1) and non-overweight(M2). Nutritional status was defined according to results obtained through the Anthro? Software for nutritional analysis. RESULTS Thirty-five children were male, with mean age of 4.44 ± 1.0 years old. Eighty-nine percent of them were eutrophic, 86.7% were sedentary and they had five meals a day. Body mass index(BMI) for age and total cholesterol(TC) was higher on C1(P = 0.0001) and high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-c) was higher on C2. Mothers were 32.5 ± 7.1 years old, mostly married and employed. Eighty-six percent of them were sedentary and 62.5% were overweight with BMI = 26.38 ± 5.07 kg/m2. Eighteen percent of the overweight mothers had isolated total hypercholesterolemia(TC levels elevated) and 12.5% had low HDL-c levels. The present study showed an association between overweight and obesity during the preschool years and the correspondent mothers' nutritional status of overweight and obesity(OR = 4.96; 95%CI: 0.558-44.17). There was a positive correlation between the food risk associated with CVD by children and mothers when their consumption was 4 times/wk(P = 0.049; r = 0.516) or daily(P = 0.000008; r = 0.892).CONCLUSION Analyzed children showed high rates of physical inactivity, high serum cholesterol levels and high consumption of food associated with risk for CVD and renal disease. Changes in habits should be encouraged early in kindergarten.

New challenges of geriatric cardiology： from clinical to preclinical research

The field of geriatric cardiology reflects the evolving medical approaches tailored to address the needs of the growing population of oldest old with cardiovascular diseases （CVD）. The burden of CVD is expected to increase particularly for the most common types of chronic heart disease of the elderly including coronary artery disease, heart failure and atrial fibrillation. In this context of dramatic demographic changes, geriatric cardiologists are facing important challenges. In this review, we outline the basic concepts of geriatric cardiology and describe these challenges as well as the unmet needs around this discipline with also a focus on the translation from basic research.

A review on function of the Naoxintong Capsule in anti atherosclerosis and protection of vascular endothelium

Atherosclerosis(As) is the common pathological basis of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, it starts with the injury of vascular endothelial. The Naoxintong Capsule, a modern patent traditional Chinese medicine, is composed of Huangqi, Danshen, Quanxie, Shuizhi and other sixteen herbs. It is extensively used to treat coronary heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, with the activity of anti-coagulation, anti-inflammatory, protecting endothelial cells, anti-atherogenic and plaque stabilization.

Aortic root replacement

Objective To report our operative experience with aortic root replacement in 231 patients with aortic root aneurysm and discuss the current indications, methods, and surgical techniques、Methods Between January 1994 and August 1999, a group of 231 consecutive patients underwent aortic root replacement at our hospital, with 13 being treated on an emergency basis、 There were 189 men and 42 women, ranging in age from 14 to 69 years、 The diameter of the aneurysm varied from 4、5 to 11?cm、 Among this group, 145 had isolated aortic root aneurysms, 65 suffered from DeBakey type Ⅰ aortic dissection, and the remaining 21 were diagnosed as having DeBakey type Ⅱ aortic dissection、 Aortic valve regurgitation occurred in all cases、 Aortic root replacement was performed with composite valved graft in 229 patients, and in 2 patients the aortic valve was preserved、Results The hospital mortality rate was 3、03% (7 patients)、 Early complications included re-exploration for bleeding in 6 patients, pericardial effusion in 9, as well as cerebral infarction, pleural effusion, and pneumothorax in 2 patients each、 One hundred and seventy-five patients (78、12%) were followed up, with a mean follow-up time of 15、7±13、1 months (range, 2 weeks to 65 months)、 One patient died from lower-limb embolism and renal dysfunction 3 months postoperatively、 Three patients died from postoperative anticoagulation accidents、 The preoperative and postoperative mean left ventricular end-diastolic diameters were significantly different (68、1±9、4?mm, range 54 to 112?mm; vs 54、8±8、2?mm, range 38 to 88?mm; P<0、001)、Conclusions Once a diagnosis of acute aortic root dissecting aneurysm is made, the patient should undergo surgery as soon as possible if the general conditions permit、 Aortic aneurysm without dissection or with chronic dissection should be operated if the diameter of the aneurysm is greater than 5?cm