Heart failure is the leading cause of non-traumatic hospitalizations in most developed countries and the costs of care are accelerating due to inpatient costs to large extent and attributed to a lesser degree by ambulatory resource expenditures including office visits, drugs, and devices. Chronic kidney disease because of its close relationships with hypertension and diabetes, is expected to rise dramatically in concert with these conditions due to the aging of world populations and the rise of obesity. It is imperative that we better understand the interface between kidney disease and heart failure to define optimal strategies for screening, prevention, detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and management.

The KDIGO Controversies Conference on Heart Failure in CKD was led by Dr. Peter McCullough, MD, MPH, cardiologist from Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, USA, and Dr. Andrew House, MD, nephrologist from the University of London, London, Ontario, Canada. This highly interactive conference brought together key thought leaders from cardiology, nephrology, and other related disciplines who comprehensively reviewed the literature and current state of understanding in this area. There were five work groups that addressed epidemiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, prognosis, and management.