Prevalence of atheromatous and non-atheromatous cardiovascular disease by age in chronic kidney disease

Background: Although chronic kidney disease (CKD) and age are major risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD), little is known about the relative proportions of atheromatous and non-atheromatous CVD by age in CKD patients.

Methods: We used baseline data from the French Chronic Kidney Disease-Renal Epidemiology and Information Network (CKD-REIN) cohort of 3033 patients (65% men) with CKD Stages 3-4 to study crude and adjusted associations between age, the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), atheromatous CVD (coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and stroke) and non-atheromatous CVD (heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia and valvular heart disease).

Results: Mean age was 66.8 and mean Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) eGFR was 32.9 mL/min/1.73 m2. In the <65, (65-74), (75-84) and ≥85 year age groups, the prevalence was, respectively, 18.7, 35.5, 42.9 and 37.8% for atheromatous CVD, and 14.9, 28.4, 38.1 and 56.4% for non-atheromatous CVD. After adjusting for albuminuria, sex and CVD risk factors, the odds ratio (OR) [95% confidence interval (CI)] for (65-74), (75-84) and ≥85 age groups (compared with the <65 group) was, respectively, 1.99 (1.61-2.46), 2.89 (2.30-3.62), 2.72 (1.77-4.18) for atheromatous CVD and 2.07 (1.66-2.58), 3.15 (2.50-3.97), 7.04 (4.67-10.61) for non-atheromatous CVD. Compared with patients with an eGFR ≥30 mL/min/1.73 m2, those with an eGFR <30 mL/min/1.73 m2 had a higher OR for atheromatous CVD [1.21 (1.01-1.44)] and non-atheromatous CVD [1.16 (0.97-1.38)].

Conclusions: In this large cohort of CKD patients, both atheromatous and non-atheromatous CVD were highly prevalent and more frequent in older patients. In a given age group, the prevalence of atheromatous and non-atheromatous CVD was similar (except for a greater prevalence of non-atheromatous CVD after 85).