Cardiorenal Syndrome, Renocardiac Syndrome, or...

Abstract

ABSTRACT The cardiac performance and renal function are intrinsically linked both in physiological conditions and disease situation. There is a trend to replace the reductionist view of the kidney as a simple filter, suffering the ill effects of a failing pump, by our understanding of the complex interactions between these two organs. Both regulate vital functions as arterial pressure, peripheral vascular resistance, diuresis, natriuresis, circulating volume homeostasis, peripheral perfusion and tissue oxygenation. Albeit the first observations of this nosological entity were described more than one hundred years ago, only recently the cardiorenal syndrome was defined as a pathophysiological disorder in which acute or chronic dysfunction of one organ may induce acute or chronic dysfunction in the other. The present paper reviews the interplay of the complex symbiosis between the heart and the kidney both in physiological conditions and disease situations.