scholarly journals Chronic Kidney Disease and Heart Failure—Everyday Diagnostic Challenges

Diagnostics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 2164
Author(s):  
Anna Adamska-Wełnicka ◽  
Marcin Wełnicki ◽  
Artur Mamcarz ◽  
Ryszard Gellert

Is advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) a cardiac “no man’s land”? Chronic heart failure (HF) is widely believed to be one of the most serious medical challenges of the 21st century. Moreover, the number of patients with CKD is increasing. To date, patients with estimated glomerular filtration rates <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 have frequently been excluded from large, randomized clinical trials. Although this situation is slowly changing, in everyday practice we continue to struggle with problems that are not clearly addressed in the guidelines. This literature review was conducted by an interdisciplinary group, which comprised a nephrologist, internal medicine specialists, and cardiologist. In this review, we discuss the difficulties in ruling out HF for patients with advanced CKD and issues regarding the cardiotoxicity of dialysis fistulas and the occurrence of pulmonary hypertension in patients with CKD. Due to the recent publication of the new HF guidelines by the European Society of Cardiology, this is a good time to address these difficult issues. Contrary to appearances, these are not niche issues, but problems that affect many patients.

The number of patients with advanced kidney disease requiring dialysis is increasing in all parts of the world. Managing patients as they transition onto dialysis and providing support and guidance as they make important treatment choices are essential components of a nephrologist’s job. Ensuring timely preparation for dialysis, allowing patients the opportunity to explore all options, including conservative care, and managing individual expectations of dialysis are increasingly important. All nephrologists will manage patients treated with dialysis and therefore it is imperative that they have a sound understanding of different dialysis modalities, how to assess the adequacy of dialysis, and the commonly encountered medical problems dialysis patients experience.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (Supplement_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edouard L Fu ◽  
Alicia Uijl ◽  
Friedo W Dekker ◽  
Lars H Lund ◽  
Gianluigi Savarese ◽  
...  

Abstract Background and Aims Beta-blockers reduce mortality and morbidity in patients with heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). However, patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) were underrepresented in landmark trials. We evaluated if beta-blockers are associated with improved survival in patients with HFrEF and advanced CKD. Method We identified 3906 persons with an ejection fraction &lt;40% and advanced CKD (eGFR &lt;30 mL/min/1.73m2) enrolled in the Swedish Heart Failure Registry during 2001-2016. The associations between beta-blocker use, 5-year all-cause mortality, and the composite of time to cardiovascular (CV) mortality/first HF hospitalization were assessed by multivariable Cox regression. Analyses were adjusted for 36 variables, including demographics, laboratory measures, comorbidities, medication use, medical procedures, and socioeconomic status. To assess consistency, the same analyses were performed in a positive control cohort of 12,673 patients with moderate CKD (eGFR &lt;60-30 mL/min/1.73m2). Results The majority (89%) of individuals with HFrEF and advanced CKD received treatment with beta-blockers. Median (IQR) age was 81 (74-86) years, 36% were women and median eGFR was 26 (20-28) mL/min/173m2. During 5 years of follow-up, 2086 (53.4%) individuals had a subsequent HF hospitalization, and 2954 (75.6%) individuals died, of which 2089 (70.1%) due to cardiovascular causes. Beta-blocker use was associated with a significant reduction in 5-year all-cause mortality [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.86; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.76-0.96)] and CV mortality/HF hospitalization (HR 0.87; 95% CI 0.77-0.98). The magnitude of the associations between beta-blocker use and outcomes was similar to that observed for HFrEF patients with mild/moderate CKD, with adjusted HRs for all-cause mortality and CV mortality/HF hospitalization of 0.85 (95% CI 0.78-0.91) and 0.88 (95% CI 0.82-0.96), respectively. Conclusion Despite lack of trial evidence, the use of beta-blockers in patients with HFrEF and advanced CKD was high in routine Swedish care, and was independently associated with reduced mortality to the same degree as HFrEF with moderate CKD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 1031-1038
Author(s):  
T. V. Pavlova

Anticoagulant therapy in elderly patients with atrial fibrillation and concomitant diseases is often the challenge for clinicians. The high risk of stroke is inherent in atrial fibrillation, and it increases when combined with coronary heart disease and chronic kidney disease. On the other hand, the comorbidity increases the risk of bleeding. Older age is also the risk factor of thrombotic and hemorrhagic complications. As a consequence, the choice of specific anticoagulant should be based on a solid evidences, obtained both from randomized clinical trials and from daily clinical practice. In the ROCKET AF trail the direct oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban showed a tendency to reduce the risk of thromboembolism by 20% compared with warfarin in the patients aged 75 years and older. The safety of rivaroxaban has been evaluated in the XANTUS POOLED program. According to the follow-up results for 12 months, more than 96% of patients didn't have any adverse event, and the number of patients with major bleeding was 1.5%. Several meta-analyzes reported a reduction of cardiovascular complications in patients treated by rivaroxaban. In the ROCKET AF trail, a “renal” dose of rivaroxaban (15 mg OD) was studied in patients with chronic kidney disease. The efficacy and safety of rivaroxaban were validated in this patients, and a simple algorithm for selecting the dose of this drug in patients with chronic kidney disease was provided. 


2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 782-789 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amber O Molnar ◽  
William Petrcich ◽  
Matthew A Weir ◽  
Amit X Garg ◽  
Michael Walsh ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Whether the survival benefit of β-blockers in congestive heart failure (CHF) from randomized trials extends to patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) [estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) &lt;30 mL/min/1.73 m2 but not receiving dialysis] is uncertain. Methods This was a retrospective cohort study using administrative datasets. Older adults from Ontario, Canada, with incident CHF (median age 79 years) from April 2002 to March 2014 were included. We matched new users of β-blockers to nonusers on age, sex, eGFR categories (&gt;60, 30–60, &lt;30), CHF diagnosis date and a high-dimensional propensity score. Using Cox proportional hazards models, we examined the association of β-blocker use versus nonuse with all-cause mortality. Results We matched 5862 incident β-blocker users (eGFR &gt;60, n = 3136; eGFR 30–60, n = 2368; eGFR &lt;30, n = 358). There were 2361 mortality events during follow-up. β-Blocker use was associated with reduced all-cause mortality [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 0.58, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.54–0.64]. This result was consistent across all eGFR categories (&gt;60: adjusted HR 0.55, 95% CI 0.49–0.62; 30–60: adjusted HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.55–0.71; &lt;30: adjusted HR 0.55, 95% CI 0.41–0.73; interaction term, P = 0.30). The results were consistent in an intention-to-treat analysis and with β-blocker use treated as a time-varying exposure. Conclusions β-Blocker use is associated with reduced all-cause mortality in elderly patients with CHF and CKD, including those with an eGFR &lt;30. Randomized trials that examine β-blockers in patients with CHF and advanced CKD are needed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 654-662 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karminder Gill ◽  
Jeffrey C. Fink ◽  
David T. Gilbertson ◽  
Keri L. Monda ◽  
Paul Muntner ◽  
...  

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