Lipid Metabolism in Chronic Kidney Disease: The Role of Statins in Cardiovascular Risk

In the general population, the relation between lipids and cardiovascular disease is clearcut, whereas it is highly controversial in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. This is primarily due to diverging results of retrospective observational trials. This study design often encounters confounding, especially in renal disease patients. Even if analyses are corrected for multiple influences, there might be unknown confounders changing the results. Prospective randomized trials assure that groups are comparable except for the intervention used. Confounding is eliminated by randomization. Nevertheless, the lipid discussion was restarted when two randomized, placebo-controlled, interventional trials on lipid-lowering therapy in renal patients have been published (Assessment of Lescol in Renal Transplantation and 4D Study [Atorvastatin in patients with type 2 diabetes on hemodialysis]). Surprisingly, both showed no significant reduction of the primary endpoint by statin therapy. In addition to other factors, this might be due to an altered pathogenesis of atherosclerosis in renal patients where multiple nontraditional cardiovascular risk factors are to be mentioned and different characteristics of cardiovascular disease with a high proportion of sudden cardiac death are present. This review will focus on dyslipidemia in renal failure and its treatment. The data published so far is summarized and grouped according to the different stages of CKD.