Cardiac and Cerebrovascular Disease in Chronic Uremia

Cardiovascular disease causes death in more than 40% of dialysis patients and the burden of its morbidity is high. The relationships between traditional risk factors for cardiac mortality, as identified by the Framingham study, and potential uremia-related risk factors are unclear. The characteristic echocardiographic pattern in dialysis patients is a dilated left ventricle with normal systolic function and left ventricular hypertrophy. Dilated cardiomyopathy, severe left ventricular hypertrophy, and coronary artery disease occur frequently and predispose to congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, and ischemic heart disease. The risk factors that predispose to each disease and the natural history of each disorder have not been studied with sufficient precision. Few quality studies have been undertaken to identify the interventions that effectively ameliorate the impact of cardiac disease in dialysis patients. In some subsets of patients, erythropoietin or renal transplantation will be useful in inducing regression of some cardiac diseases. However, the impact of various antihypertensive agents, lipid-lowering agents, or normalization of hematocrit is unknown.