All submissions of the EM system will be redirected to Online Manuscript Submission System. Authors are requested to submit articles directly to Online Manuscript Submission System of respective journal.

Pulmonary hypertension in patients with stage 1-3 chronic kidney disease

Author(s): Q.M. Yang and X.R. Bao

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) secondary to chronic kidney disease (CKD) is common, but in stages 1-3 CKD patients, it remains unclear. We sought to evaluate the prevalence of PH and elucidate the possible pathogenesis in Chinese patients with early stage kidney disease. Doppler-estimated pulmonary systolic artery pressure (PASP) was measured in 101 CKD patients with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m2 and 27 CKD patients with GFR 2. Echocardiographic parameters, plasma brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and baseline characteristics of patients were recorded. PH was defined as a PASP ≥ 35 mmHg. PH prevalence was 23.76% (24/101) in GFR ≥ 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 group and 48.15% (13/27) in GFR 2 group, P 2) compared to non-PH group (75.59 ± 31.62 mL/min/1.73 m2), P < 0.01. lnBNP, LA and GFR were independent determinants (r = 0.651, 0.595, -0.488, P < 0.01) of PASP. PH is prevalent among stage 1-3 CKD patients in China. Doppler-estimated PASP is strongly associated with lnBNP, enlarged LA and GFR. Monitoring PASP, plasma BNP and evaluation renal function may help to detect and prevent severe PH in CKD.