Studies Evaluating the Association Between Proteinuria and Cardiovascular Disease
Therapeutic Strategies for Reduction of Cardiovascular and Renal Risk in Patients With Proteinuria Based on the KDOQI Guidelines
Classification of Proteinuria
Screening for Proteinuria
This activity is intended for primary care physicians, nephrologists, endocrinologists, cardiologists, and other physicians who care for patients with proteinuria.
The goal of this activity is to describe the relationship between proteinuria and cardiovascular disease.
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In patients with proteinuria, reduction of cardiovascular risk is aimed at both the reduction in degree of proteinuria and control of associated clinical risk factors including hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, obesity and smoking. This multifactorial intervention offers benefit in reducing the global cardiovascular risk. A summary of therapeutic strategies is presented in Table 2.
Is proteinuria a target for cardiovascular protection? Despite an approach aimed at reduction in degree of proteinuria often being included in the therapeutic strategy for the reduction of cardiovascular risk in patients with proteinuria, to date no completed, randomized, controlled trials have proved that reducing urinary protein excretion lowers CVD risk. Clearly, the presence of proteinuria is associated with an increased risk for CVD mortality, and its presence is as good a predictor of CVD mortality as CKD or previous myocardial infarction.[56] CKD itself is a cardiovascular risk marker owing to a high prevalence of traditional and nontraditional cardiovascular risk factors, including proteinuria; the concurrent presence of proteinuria might further amplify the increased cardiovascular risk observed with decreased GFR. Clear dissociation of the exaggerated cardiovascular risk imposed by the concurrent presence of these two important risk factors is challenging. Clinical trials studying the effect of different proteinuria targets on cardiovascular outcomes are strongly needed, but are difficult to plan and implement for a variety of practical reasons—including variability in measures of proteinuria, difference among class and dosage of medications that reduce proteinuria, baseline levels of proteinuria that predict varying outcomes and responses to RAAS blockade, difficulty achieving target blood pressure, patient adherence to diet and therapy, careful monitoring of medication complications, and long term follow-up needed to demonstrate benefit in clinical outcomes.