Chronic kidney disease as cardiovascular risk factor in routine clinical practice: a position statement by the Council of the European Renal Association

The ESC 2021 guideline on Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) Prevention in Clinical Practice has major implications for both cardiovascular (CV) risk screening and kidney health of interest to primary care physicians, cardiologists, nephrologists and other professionals involved in CVD prevention. The proposed CVD prevention strategies require as first step the categorization of individuals into those with established atherosclerotic CVD, diabetes, familiar hypercholesterolemia or chronic kidney disease (CKD), i.e. conditions that are already associated with a moderate to very high CVD risk. This places CKD, defined as decreased kidney function or increased albuminuria as a starting step for CVD risk assessment. Thus, for adequate CVD risk assessment, patients with diabetes, familiar hypercholesterolemia or CKD should be identified by an initial laboratory assessment that requires not only serum to assess glucose, cholesterol and creatinine to estimate the glomerular filtration rate, but also urine to assess albuminuria. The addition of albuminuria as an entry-level step in CVD risk assessment should change clinical practice as it differs from the current healthcare situation in which albuminuria is only assessed in persons already considered to be at high risk of CVD. A diagnosis of moderate of severe CKD requires a specific set of interventions to prevent CVD. Further research should address the optimal method for CV risk assessment that includes CKD assessment in the general population, i.e. whether this should remain opportunistic screening or whether systematic screening .