The need for a cardionephrology subspecialty

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has structural and functional repercussions for the cardiovascular system that facilitate the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD). In fact, cardiovascular complications are frequent in the CKD population and thus cause a great clinical, public health and economic burden. Despite this challenge, the prevention and management of cardiovascular complications is one among several aspects of CKD that meets the criteria of an unmet medical need. This probably has to do with the misperception by the nephrologist of the global relevance of CVD in the CKD patient which, in turn, may be due to insufficient cardiovascular training during nephrology specialization. Therefore a change in approach is necessary to understand CKD as a disease in which the manifestations and complications related to CVD become so frequent and important that they require dedicated multidisciplinary clinical management. From this perspective, it makes sense to consider training in the subspecialty of cardionephrology to provide adequate cardiovascular care for CKD patients by the nephrologist. In addition, the cardionephrology subspecialist would be better able to interact with other specialists in multidisciplinary care settings created to achieve a deeper understanding and more effective clinical handling of the interactions between CKD and CVD.