Dear Colleagues,

Renal disease from chronic kidney disease (CKD) to total loss of renal function with the need of substitutive therapy with peritoneal dialysis or haemodialysis or renal transplantation has an ‘epidemic’ diffusion mainly attributed to progressive aging of general population. In USA, CKD is the ninth leading cause of death and affects more than 10% of the adult population. Total USA Medicare expenditure for CKD (excluding drugs) accounts for 6% of all Medicare costs while in Europe caring costs for a dialysis patient without complications in mean start from about 2700 euro per month, 35000 euro per year (differing in the single nations) and has a minimal incidence of about 2% on the annual Medicare budget.  

Cardiovascular (CV) risk is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with renal insufficiency with a risk increased from 10 to 100% respect to general population. The higher mortality rate is due not only to the influence of traditional risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, dyslipidaemia and cigarette smoking, but also to specific factors of uremic patients. CV acute complications include hypotension, arrhythmias and sometimes sudden death during haemodialysis sessions but also ventricular hypertrophy, valve-related complications and often-myocardial ischemia in general CKD population.

In this Special Issue, we invite original research as well as review articles giving high priority to the following topics:
● Biomarkers of cardiovascular risk in CKD patients: new development and fields of growth 
● Acute complications during haemodialysis from hypotension to arrhythmias to sudden death: available diagnostic tools and future perspectives and advances from cardiological and internist point of view 
● New advancements in clarifying chronic cardiovascular complications in CKD population
● Novel tools like smart devices or parameters able to predict the occurrence of CV conditions in CKD

Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Coppolino
Guest Editor