Endocrine alterations and cardiovascular risk in CKD: is there a link?

The kidney plays an important role in synthesis, metabolism and elimination of a plethora of hormones. Thus, chronic kidney disease (CKD) naturally progresses with hormonal disorders. This review will focus in emerging evidence regarding the association between CKD-associated disturbances in the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis and cardiovascular risk factors. Hormonal derangements discussed are prolactin retention, testosterone deficiency and the low trioodothyronine syndrome, all of which have traditionally been interpreted as innocent bystanders of uremia and received relatively scarce attention by the Nephrology community. We here show that these disorders share intriguing links with inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, arterial stiffness, protein-energy wasting and other cardiometabolic alterations inherent to CKD-related excess mortality. We argue that these disorders may be novel uremic risk factors with possibility to serve as therapeutic targets.