Optimizing drug adherence in hypertension: More than a mind game.

Poor drug adherence to prescribed drug treatments and lifestyle recommendations is a major determinant of poor blood pressure control reported around the World. Prevalence rates of antihypertensive medication nonadherence are highly variable depending on the studied population and may reach up to 40%. Remarkably, the phenomenon stays often undiagnosed and unaddressed mainly because physicians have limited tools to perform a reliable diagnosis. In this review oriented toward practicality, 5 principal aspects of nonadherence will be addressed with a special emphasis on psychological factors influencing adherence patterns, both from a patient's and physician's perspectives.

Endovascular Versus Medical Management of Atherosclerotic Renovascular Disease: Update and Emerging Concepts.

Atherosclerotic renovascular disease is the most frequent cause of renovascular hypertension and its prevalence increases with age and in specific subset of patients, such as those with end-stage chronic kidney disease, heart failure, and coronary artery disease. Besides hypertension, atherosclerotic renovascular disease is responsible for several clinical manifestations, including life-threatening conditions, such as recurrent flash pulmonary edema, rapidly progressive chronic kidney disease, or acute kidney injury. Atherosclerotic renovascular disease is usually part of a more diffuse atherosclerotic process and requires a combination therapy including antihypertensive, antiplatelet and lipid-lowering agents, as well as optimization of antidiabetic treatment, if needed. Besides medical therapy, percutaneous renal angioplasty was supposed to be the most effective therapy for atherosclerotic renovascular disease, by leading to blood flow restoration. However, despite an apparently solid rationale, several randomized clinical trials failed to confirm the favorable effects of percutaneous renal angioplasty on blood pressure control, kidney function, cardiovascular and renal outcomes, previously reported in observational, retrospective and single-center cohorts, switching off the enthusiasm for this procedure. Several studies' limitations may partly account for this failure, including heterogeneity of diagnostic techniques, overestimation of the degree of renal artery stenosis, inappropriate timing of revascularization, multiple protocol revisions, frequent crossovers, and most importantly exclusion of patients at higher likelihood to respond to angioplasty. The purpose of this review is to summarize studies' potential weaknesses and provide guidance to the clinician for identification of patients who may benefit most from revascularization.

Risk for excessive anticoagulation during hemodialysis is associated with type of vascular access and bedside coagulation testing: Results of a cross-sectional study.

Background: Recommendations and practice patterns for heparin dosing during hemodialysis show substantial heterogeneity and are scantly supported by evidence. This study assessed the variability in unfractionated heparin (UFH) dosing during hemodialysis and its clinical and biological anticoagulatory effects, and identified explanatory factors of heparin dosing. Methods: Cross-sectional study assessing UFH dosing, coagulation tests - activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) and activated clotting time (ACT) before dialysis start, 1 h after start and at treatment end (4 h) - and measurement of residual blood compartment volume of used dialyzers. Results: 101 patients, 58% male, with a median dialysis vintage of 33 (6-71) months received hemodialysis using a total UFH dose of 9,306 ± 4,079 (range 3,000-23,050) IU/session. Use of a dialysis catheter (n = 56, 55%) was associated with a 1.4 times higher UFH dose (p < 0.001) irrespective of prior access function. aPTT increased significantly more than ACT both 1 h and 4 h after dialysis start, independent of the dialysis access used. 53% of patients with catheter access and ACT ratio < 1.5, 1 h after dialysis start had simultaneous aPTT ratios > 2.5. Similar findings were present at 1 h for patients with AVF/AVG and at dialysis end for catheter use. No clinically significant clotting of the extracorporeal circuit was noted during the studied sessions. Dialyzer's blood compartment volume was reduced with a median of 9% (6-20%) without significant effect of UFH dose, aPTT or ACT measurements and vascular access type. Conclusion: UFH dose adaptations based on ACT measurements frequently result in excessive anticoagulation according to aPTT results. Higher doses of UFH are used in patients with hemodialysis catheters without evidence that this reduces dialyzer clotting.

Fibromuscular dysplasia: its various phenotypes in everyday practice in 2021.

Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) is a non-atherosclerotic vascular disease that may involve medium-sized muscular arteries throughout the body. The pathogenesis of FMD remains poorly understood, but a combination of genetic and environmental factors may be involved. The majority of FMD patients are women, but men may have a more progressive disease, especially when smoking. Besides the classical phenotype of string of beads or focal stenosis, arterial aneurysms, dissections, and tortuosity are frequent manifestations of the disease. However, the differential diagnosis of FMD is extensive and includes imaging artefacts as well as other arterial diseases. Diagnosis is based on CT-, MR-, or conventional catheter-based angiography during work-up of clinical manifestations, but clinically silent lesions may be found incidentally. Arterial hypertension and neurological symptoms are the most frequent clinical presentations, as renal and cerebrovascular arteries are the most commonly involved. However, involvement of most arteries throughout the body has been reported, resulting in a variety of clinical symptoms. The management of FMD depends on the vascular phenotype as well on the clinical picture. Ongoing FMD-related research will elaborate in depth the current progress in improved understandings of the disease's clinical manifestations, epidemiology, natural history and pathogenesis. This review is focused on the clinical management of adult FMD in daily practice.