Influence of chronic kidney disease on cardiac structure and function

Chronic kidney disease (CKD), the presence of kidney dysfunction and/or damage, is a worldwide public health issue. Although CKD is independently associated with various subtypes of cardiovascular diseases, a recent international collaborative meta-analysis demonstrates that CKD is particularly strongly associated with heart failure, suggesting its critical impact on cardiac structure and function. Although numerous studies have investigated the association of CKD and cardiac structure and function, these studies substantially vary regarding source populations and methodology (e.g., measures of CKD and/or parameters of cardiac structure and function), making it difficult to reach universal conclusions. Nevertheless, in this review, we comprehensively examine relevant studies, discuss potential mechanisms linking CKD to alteration of cardiac structure and function, and demonstrate clinical implications as well as potential future research directions. We exclusively focus on studies investigating both CKD measures, kidney function (i.e., glomerular filtration rate [GFR], creatinine clearance, or levels of filtration markers), and kidney damage represented by albuminuria, since current international clinical guidelines of CKD recommend staging CKD and assessing its clinical risk based on both GFR and albuminuria.