Hemodynamic Evaluation of Pulmonary Hypertension in Chronic Kidney Disease

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common condition and its prevalence is increasing.12 Likewise, the number of patients reaching end-stage renal disease (ESRD) continues to rise. In the United States in 2010, there were 413,275 patients on dialysis and 179,361 patients with a functioning renal transplant, bringing the rate of prevalent ESRD cases to 1752 per million population.2 Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a commonly encountered comorbidity of patients with CKD and those who have progressed to ESRD. Although the true prevalence of PH in these populations is unknown, several small, single-center analyses using varied cutoffs for echocardiographically estimated pulmonary pressures have reported estimates as high as 56%.3–7