Cardiovascular disease in renal failure.

Cardiovascular disease is prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease and may account for 50% of all deaths. Left ventricular hypertrophy is the most frequent cardiac alteration in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. It is due to a combination of hemodynamic and humoral factors. Volume overload and pressure overload are responsible for adaptative alterations of the heart and the vessels consider as a unique functional system. These alterations are first beneficial but their persistence leads to a detrimental process, mainly cardiac dilation and failure. Treatment of the hemodynamic overload could partially stabilize or reverse this evolution.