Factors governing cardiovascular risk in the patient with a failing renal transplant.

Cardiomyopathy and IHD are important morbid complications among renal transplant recipients. Age, diabetes, and sex remain important markers of risk. Smoking, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension appear to be the major reversible risk factors for IHD. Anemia and hypertension predict CHF. Definitive evidence on optimal intervention is lacking. Similarities in the renal transplant recipients to CRI patients with respect to cardiomyopathy and to the general population with respect to IHD suggest that extrapolation from those groups is reasonable in the interim.