European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

BACKGROUND:Atherosclerotic renovascular disease is a frequently overlooked condition and potentially correctable disease. It is estimated that approximately 1-5% of people have renovascular disease as an underlying cause of hypertension. It is also frequently associated with decreased renal function. Patients with atherosclerotic renal artery disease are at significantly increased risk for other vascular events, including coronary and cerebrovascular complications. The Atherosclerotic RAS is one of the most common causes of secondary hypertension and its prevalence in hypertensive patients undergoing coronary angiography is low, but substantially higher in patients with established peripheral (50%) and/or coronary artery disease (30%), and elderly population. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of RAS among CAD patients with hypertension who underwent coronary angiography. METHODOLOGY: This is a hospital based cross sectional study which included100 patients presenting to department of cardiology, KGH between 1st July 2021 and 30th June 2023 with a diagnosis of coronary artery disease with Hypertension and who underwent Coronary angiography (CAG). After completion of CAG, Renal angiography (RAG) was done selectively using the same Judgkins right catheter.Data were entered in MS-Excel and analysed in SPSS V25. Descriptive statistics were represented with percentages for qualitative data, Mean with SD for quantitative data. Chi-square test, Fisher Exact test was applied for comparison of proportions. P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. CONCLUSION:In the present study(n=100), the prevalence of Renal artery stenosis was significant (19% ) where unilateral involvement was seen in 14% and bilateral RAS in 5%.In our study, patients’ age ranged from 32 to 76 years. Mean age was 53.8 ± 8.15 years. In our study, majority (59%) were males and 41% were females. Males were higher (68%) when compared to females (38%) in patients with RAS.Among the risk factors, smoking and dyslipidemia were higher in patients with RAS, when compared to patients with normal renal arteries, though not statiscally significant. The percentage of patients with Diabetes and obesity were similar in both groups. In our study, the presence of stage 2 hypertension and resistant hypertension are independent variables for the presence of renal artery stenosis in CAD with hypertension patients. The presence of age more than 50 years, stage 2 hypertension at presentation, resistant hypertension and triple vessel disease on coronary angiography serve as independent predictors for renal artery stenosis with statistically significant parameters in patients with coronary artery disease and hypertension in our study. Renal angiography is recommended to screen for ARAS in hypertensive patients with multiple risk factors and multivessel disease to prevent ischemic nephropathy a reversible cause of chronic renal failure.