Coronary artery stenosis: a new risk factor for chronic kidney injury?

Coronary artery stenosis induces renal inflammation and kidney injury in pigs even in the absence of myocardial infarction or clinically significant heart failure. This effect is aggravated by experimentally induced renovascular hypertension. Interestingly, oxidative stress originating from the ischemic myocardium was identified as a possible mediator of this new pathophysiological link between heart and kidney. Renin-angiotensin or sympathetic nervous system activation did not appear to play a role in the observed cardio-renal link.