The elderly are at greater risk of dying from heart failure and strokes if they have damaged kidneys, according to a study by University of Glasgow researchers.

The study, published in the PLoS Medicine journal, suggests that elderly people with damaged kidneys are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular diseases than those with healthy organs.

Professor Ian Ford and Professor Naveed Sattar of the University of Glasgow say the findings prove more effort needs to be made to help patients with kidney and other health problems like high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure, to make lifestyle changes to avoid developing cardiovascular problems. These ‘lifestyle changes’ could include stopping smoking and eating more healthily. Scotland has one of the worst records for cardiovascular disease in Europe.

Professor Ford, a specialist in biostatistics, said: “This study shows that impaired kidney function markers are linked to higher risks for heart disease and death in the elderly subjects with other risk factors.”
 
To establish how at risk those with kidney complaints were researchers analysed existing data from a three year clinical trial conducted among men and women aged between 70 and 82-years-of-age in Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands. They then set this data against existing results which show that young and middle-aged patients with a reduced estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) - that is the measurement of the movement of waste and excess fluid through the kidneys - are more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those with healthy kidneys.

Professor Sattar, an expert in cardiovascular and metabolic medicine, added: “These findings extend similar observation in younger individuals and suggest the need for further studies to help us better understand mechanisms linking poor kidney function to greater heart disease risks. Such studies may lead to new ways to lessen heart disease risk in the future.”

The trial, known as the Prospective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk or PROSPER, was designed to test the effect of the statin based drug Pravastatin on the development of cardiovascular disease. Statins are a group of drugs which reduce blood cholesterol levels in those with or at risk of cardiovascular disease.

Dividing the study’s patients into four groups based on their eGFR at the start of the study, Professor Ford and colleagues established that those with the most impaired kidney function – that is those with low eGFR - were twice as likely to die from any cause as those with healthier kidneys. They also found that patients with the most damaged kidneys were three times more likely to have non-fatal heart failure or disease and were more likely to die as a result of heart disease or failure.

The findings also showed that treating patients with Pravastatin reduced the number of fatal and non-fatal heart problems effectively even in those with impaired kidney function.

Prof Ford added: “This finding, while significant should not be overestimated. Statistically it is borderline and the most we can say is that what can be concluded from this is that there is no reason to exclude elderly people with damaged kidneys from treatment with statins."

ENDS

For more information please contact:

Ray McHugh, Media Relations Manager at the University of Glasgow, on Tel 0141 330 3535 or Email: r.mchugh@admin.gla.ac.uk

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available paper: http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000016     

Press-only preview of the article:http://www.plos.org/press/plme-06-01-ford.pdf
 
Read the editors’ summary of the paper: http://www.plos.org/press/plme-06-01-ford-summary.pdf

First published: 19 January 2009

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PLoS Paper - http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000016