The relationship between hypertension and chronic kidney disease (CKD) is bidirectional in nature and, generally, management strategies for cardiovascular risk reduction also attenuate progression of CKD. Prevalent hypertension increases with diminishing kidney function, and the management strategy changes with level of kidney function. In this review, we will examine the evidence for management of hypertension, as a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease in CKD, and the impact of this management on progression of CKD.

A 70-year-old Caucasian male presented 8 months postcadaveric renal transplant with slowly progressive shortness of breath, abdominal distention, and cough for a duration of a few days. Thorough evaluation found him to have severe pulmonary hypertension (PH) on echocardiogram with decompensated high-output congestive heart failure. A right heart catheterization was done, which confirmed elevated right-sided pressures and high cardiac output. The mean pulmonary artery pressure, on a Swan-Ganz catheter, improved from 37 to 30 mmHg on partial manual occlusion of his still functioning hemodialysis arteriovenous fistula. Subsequently, the patient underwent ligation of the fistula and this led to gradual improvement in his symptoms. Follow-up right heart catheterization and echocardiogram showed marked improvement and normalization of right heart pressures. We recommend that patients with arteriovenous fistula should undergo close monitoring for development of early signs and symptoms of congestive heart failure and screening for PH by echocardiography post-kidney transplant. Right heart catheterization should be considered if screening is positive. Risk and benefit of fistula closure should be weighed in face of reduced survival from PH in dialysis patients and closure should be considered in post-transplant patients.

Summary. Objective: We sought to evaluate deep vein thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis compliance according to time of admission in a medical intensive care unit (MICU). Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study at a closed tertiary MICU. We classified patients into three groups (week days, weekends, and week nights), according to time of admission. An unweighted risk factor score (RFS) was calculated from 20 known risk factors. We defined DVT prophylaxis compliance as any type of prophylaxis (mechanical or pharmacologic) for RFS £ 3 or both types of prophylaxis for RFS > 3. Noncompliance was defined as no prophylaxis or single-type prophylaxis for RFS > 3. Results: We analyzed 105 admissions. Eighty (76.19%) patients received compliant DVT prophylaxis, and 25 (23.81%) patients received non-compliant regimens of whom 11 (10.48%) were not on any prophylaxis. DVT prophylaxis compliance was not different across the three admission groups. The non-compliant DVT prophylaxis group had a higher RFS (3.48 ± 2.1 vs. 2.25 ± 1.5; P = 0.011), a trend towards fewer female patients (40% vs. 60%; P = 0.079), and a higher percentage of admissions by interns at the first postgraduate year (PGY) level (28% vs. 5.4%; P = 0.01). Logistic regression revealed that only RFS and PGY level were independent predictors for compliance (P = 0.015 and 0.005 respectively). Time of admission was not a significant factor. Conclusions: Time of admission did not influence DVT prophylaxis compliance. Compliance improved with higher PGY level and lower RFS. A higher level of knowledge probably explains the association with PGY level; however, we cannot explain the inverse relationship between RFS and compliance.

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