News

Valerie Luyckx, ISN Advocacy Working Group chair, was invited to join a panel of experts at the World Heart Federation’s Heart Café Session “Navigating the Complex Relationship Between Chronic Kidney Disease and Cardiovascular Complications,” held as part of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Watch a recording of the event here.

Dr. Luyckx highlighted the relationship between chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular complications, pointing out the need for a holistic approach to treatment.

She stated, “To protect the kidneys, you need to protect the heart…most patients with kidney disease actually die of cardiovascular disease…young people on dialysis have a 500 times increased risk of dying of cardiovascular disease compared to young people the same age without cardiovascular disease, so part of our message is really breaking down the silos…looking at the entire patient and realizing that cardiovascular disease is a major morbidity for patients with kidney disease but also kidney disease is an enormous risk factor for cardiovascular disease.”

Dr. Luyckx accentuated the need for close collaboration to speed up the availability of effective medication, commenting, “We were very happy to see that the latest ESC guidelines included proper screening for kidney disease. One of our concerns is that awareness of the guidelines is low. We do know that drugs work…but the uptake is low. It takes 17 years to get evidence into practice for both cardiologists and nephrologists and so one of the synergies is that if we all work together, we can shorten those 17 years and really start saving lives now.”