[Mechanism, imaging technique and therapy for vascular calcification in patients of chronic kidney disease]

Vascular calcification has been reported to influence mortality and complications of cardiovascular diseases in patients with chronic kidney disease. Once vascular calcification was thought to the result from passive precipitation of calcium and phosphate, it now appears that end result of phenotypic change of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) into osteoblast-like cells. A variety of imaging technique are available to visualize vascular calcification, including X-ray, vascular ultrasound, electron beam computed tomography (EBCT) and multidetector-row computed tomography (MDCT) . Especially, MDCT with contrast medium that can detect not only coronary calcification but also stenosis is useful and noninvasive methods for screening of coronary artery disease. Through greater understanding of both the mechanism and clinical consequence of vascular calcification, future therapeutic strategies may be more effectively designed and applied.