The heart and the kidneys share responsibility for maintaining hemodynamic stability and end-organ perfusion. Connections between these organs ensure that subtle physiologic changes in one system are tempered by compensation in the other through a variety of pathways and mediators. In the setting of underlying heart disease or chronic kidney disease, the capacity of each organ to respond to per...

This lyrical description of cardiorenal failure predates echocardiography and renal ultrasound by many hundreds of years but, despite these and other advances in diagnosis and treatment, cardiorenal failure remains an underresearched area of nephrology and cardiology. In this review, cardiorenal failure is defined as pulmonary congestion with a serum creatinine of 150 μmol/l or above. This is a...

The combination of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and heart failure (HF) is associated with an adverse prognosis. Although clinical studies hint at a specific bidirectional interaction between HF and CKD, insight into the pathogenesis of cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) remains limited. We review available evidence on cardiorenal interactions from animal models of CKD and HF and discuss several studies...

We are reporting a case of acute renal failure after cardiac surgery due to acute pericardial effusion. The patient had normal baseline renal function but developed acute oliguric renal failure with a significant increase in serum creatinine postoperatively. Pericardiotomy led to an improvement in blood pressure, immediate diuresis and quick recovery of renal function back to baseline. Pericard...

The ubiquitous distribution of vitamin D receptors in the human body is responsible for the pleiotropic effects of vitamin D-receptor activation. We discuss the possible beneficial effects of a selective activator of vitamin D receptor, paricalcitol, on the cardiovascular system in chronic heart failure patients and chronic kidney patients, in light of new trials. Paricalcitol should provide ad...