Atherosclerotic renovascular disease.

ABSTRACT

This review investigates patients with renovascular disease due to atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis. This group of patients has a very high risk of cardiovascular events. Randomised trials have failed to show that renal artery stenting is more effective than medical therapy alone in most patients but did not enroll patients with high-risk clinical syndromes. Recent cohort studies have observed a beneficial effect of renal artery stenting on blood pressure and kidney function in high-risk patients with atherosclerotic renovascular disease. Therefore, a Danish randomised trial has been initiated to explore these observations further.