Cardiovascular disease: Prevention and treatment in renal transplant recipients

Despite improved survival, renal transplant recipients remain at a high risk of increased mortality and mortality from cardiovascular disease. Both traditional cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and those unique to this population add to the burden of disease, making their CVD risk 50 times that of the general population. This article discusses our present understanding of cardiovascular disease, the risk factors, including dyslipidemia, hypertension, allograft rejection and dysfunction, anemia, proteinuria and new onset diabetes after transplantation (NODAT), as well as prevention and management of these risk factors. Cardiovascular interventions as well as future considerations are also briefly discussed.