Detection of cardiovascular calcifications: Is it a useful tool for nephrologists?

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been used as a model and source of knowledge concerning the mechanisms, clinical relevance and accelerated progression of cardiovascular (CV) calcification, as well as its consequences in clinical practice, despite we know that it is a late secondary ossification phenomenon and only circumstantial evidence is available. In this comprehensive review, we firstly describe the types of CV calcification which affect CKD patients, and we analyse how its presence is directly associated with CV events and increased mortality in these patients. We also justify the use of CV calcification assessment in regular nephrology clinical practice, because CV calcification is an important predictor of clinical outcome in these patients. Consequently, we believe that CV calcification assessment is a tool that could and should be used by nephrologists when making a decision concerning individual patients, consistent with the current trend of an ever-more-personalised therapeutic approach.