Dr.S.Venkatesan MD

I used to tell my students ,the relationship between the heart and kidney  is so close , it is never justified for  the  two departments of Nephrology and Cardiology  are  physically away by two blocks in our institute .

Kidneys are vital to maintain the volume and pressure of body fluids and heart is responsible for keeping this fluid circulating.

In clinical setting  it is a well known secret ,most deaths in patients who are on dialysis is cardiac while  most  deaths in patients  with CHF are renal.

It remains a mystery  why kidneys were   ever considered as a circulatory organ  , when  our medical pundits de-compartmentalised  human organ systems !

CKD is pre-cardiac failure and CHF is pre-renal failure

The Heart /Kidney affair is so intimate in many  pathological situations both either succeed or fail  simultaneous or sequentially.

While CKD  results in and pressure and volume overload of heart , cardiac failure cause pressure and volume under load (pre-renal  factor) which worsen the renal function and aggravate cardiac function alter.

In essence,  it is vicious cycle of two  serial organs  performing  the vital circulatory function with body fluids playing a  role of diligent mediator.Whenever the kidney  fails heart  is stretched and stressed  to its Frank starling limits by the volume  as well as the accompanying HT load.

While text books link these two organ as simple cardio-renal syndrome it is not happening at the level of patient’s bed side.

Cardiologists and  Nephrologists must realise they need do work in tandem like  their  respective  departmental  organs  which accomplish this task easily !

To tackle this much  maligned  cardio-renal conundrum

Consider CKD as CHF equivalent  and CHF as CKD’s

I would recommend this concept to be infused  right in the third year medical school and  try de- compartmentelise  clinical  medicine.

Need of the hour : How to Moderate ACEI dosing in CKD

ACEI has been a major pharmacological   revolution in controlling and reversing the adverse events of cardiac failure . Some where along ,  a significant fear complex arose regarding the damage it could cause to kidneys.

Recently , we know the role of  ACEI in CKD made U turn(Like what  Beta  blockers did to CHF) .Now, it is presumed ACEI are indeed  safe in most CKD and may  even regress  CKD. Still this concept  has not been fully disseminated  into general physician domain.

Let cardiologist and Nephrologist sit together and sort out this issue.

I guess ,  ACEI controversy is  a sort of  ongoing ego clash  between Nephrologist and Cardiologist . Both like it , both make fuss about it ! In my observation , if  a cardiologist titrate it upwards  Nephrologist would  lower it  and reverse happens if cardiologist express caution about it ! Do you agree ?

Final message

Mankind has  accrued  great benefits  from stunning break throughs in modern medical science . . . but it has come  only at a huge  cost ! Medical knowledge has completely fragmented the physician mind-set .Every good therapeutic concept is  hanging aloof .It requires periodic de-fragmentation (As we do it to our PCs by anti-viral soft ware !)

To begin with , let us  consider   CKD and CHF as single sequential circulatory  entity !

Let us vouch to  create new generation medical professional  devoid of skewed  medical vision !

Reference

Guidelines for ACEI in CKD

https://www.kidney.org/professionals/kdoqi/guidelines_bp/guide_11.htm