Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) is an international organization whose mission is to improve the care and outcomes of kidney disease patients worldwide by promoting coordination, collaboration, and integration of initiatives to develop and implement clinical practice guidelines. Periodically, KDIGO sponsors conferences on topics of importance to patients with kidney disease. These conferences are designed to review the state of the art on a focused subject, and to ask conference participants to determine what needs to be done in this area to improve patient care and outcomes. Sometimes the recommendations from these conferences lead to KDIGO guideline efforts, but other times they highlight needed areas for additional research to produce evidence that might lead to guidelines in the future.

A growing amount of evidence suggests that chronic kidney disease (CKD) at all stages is an important, independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). As a consequence many patients with CKD die prematurely before they reach dialysis or die on dialysis, despite the technical achievements in organ replacement therapy.  However, the reasons for these adverse associations are not well understood and are therefore controversial. In particular, whether CVD and CVD events are different in CKD patients compared to patients without CKD is poorly defined. Similarly, whether there are important differences in CVD in patients with CKD that suggest preventative or therapeutic strategies that are unique to this population is unclear.

Therefore, KDIGO sponsored a conference titled “Cardiovascular Disease in CKD: What is it and what can we do about it?” The conference was held on 29-31 October 2010 in London, England. Drs. Eberhard Ritz and Charles Herzog co-chaired this event, with a goal to define the current state of our knowledge of CVD in patients with CKD Stages 1-5. Topics included epidemiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis, prevention and treatment, with the focus on four areas of utmost clinical relevance: 1) Coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction, 2) Congestive heart failure, 3) Sudden cardiac death and 4) Cerebrovascular disease and stroke.

Invited participants and speakers included the leading worldwide experts in these topic areas, including nephrologists, cardiologists, neurologists, and representatives of other disciplines to give the broadest views possible on the subject. Their task was to summarize the existing knowledge, develop recommendations on what can be done to optimize the prognosis of CKD patients based on this knowledge, and to formulate and prioritize research questions. The conference output will include publication of a position statement that will help guide KDIGO and others on additional research and ultimately clinical practice guidelines.