Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Pharmacotherapy

Cardiovascular effects of aldosterone blockade in CKD

The results of the CRIB-2 trial, which show that the mineralocorticoid receptor blocker (MRB) spironolactone improves left ventricular mass and aortic stiffness in patients with early stage chronic kidney disease (CKD), provide impetus for large-scale clinical trials to evaluate the effects of this strategy on clinical outcomes. The optimum choice of MRB and its dose, however, remain uncertain given the potential risk of hyperkalemia in patients with CKD.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Edwards, N. C., Steeds, R. P., Stewart, P. M., Ferro, C. J. & Townsend, J. N. Effect of spironolactone on left ventricular mass and aortic stiffness in early-stage chronic kidney disease: a randomized controlled trial. J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 54, 505–512 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Pitt, B. et al. The effect of spironolactone on morbidity and mortality in patients with severe heart failure. Randomized Aldactone Evaluation Study Investigators. N. Engl. J. Med. 341, 709–717 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Pitt, B. et al. Eplerenone, a selective aldosterone blocker, in patients with left ventricular dysfunction after myocardial infarction. N. Engl. J. Med. 348, 1309–1321 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Sowers, J. R., Whaley-Connell, A. & Epstein, M. Narrative review: the emerging clinical implications of the role of aldosterone in the metabolic syndrome and resistant hypertension. Ann. Intern. Med. 150, 776–783 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Epstein, M. Aldosterone blockade: an emerging strategy for abrogating progressive renal disease. Am. J. Med. 119, 912–919 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Juurlink, D. N. et al. Rates of hyperkalemia after publication of the Randomized Aldactone Evaluation Study. N. Engl. J. Med. 351, 543–551 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Preston, R. A. et al. Mechanisms of impaired potassium handling with dual renin-angiotensin-aldosterone blockade in chronic kidney disease. Hypertension 53, 754–760 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. McManus, F., McInnes, G. T. & Connell, J. M. Drug insight: eplerenone, a mineralocorticoid-receptor antagonist. Nat. Clin. Pract. Endocrinol. Metab. 4, 44–52 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Kolfoph, P. et al. Cardiac and renal protection by a new mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist in salt-sensitive hypertension [abstract P754]. Eur. Heart J. 27 (Suppl. 1), 110 (2006).

  10. Evaluation of RLY5016 in heart failure patients (Pearl-HF). ClinicalTrials.gov: a service of the US NIH, [online] (2009).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bertram Pitt.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

B. Pitt has acted as a consultant for AstraZeneca, Bayer, BG Medicine, Daiichi Sankyo, Forest Laboratories, GE Healthcare Kaperio, Merck & Co., Nile Therapeutics, Novartis, ONO Pharmaceutical, Paracor Medical, Pericor Therapeutics, Pfizer, Relypsa, Schering-Plough, and Takeda. He has received research grants from Abbott, Bayer, Biomarin, and Medtronic, and has stock options with BG Medicine, Nile Therapeutics, Paracor Medical, and Relypsa.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pitt, B. Cardiovascular effects of aldosterone blockade in CKD. Nat Rev Cardiol 6, 679–680 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2009.175

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrcardio.2009.175

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing