Aug 4, 2014
Chronic kidney disease is an important risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. This risk is all the more important for patients undergoing hemodialysis. In the presence of clinical signs of an acute myocardial infarction, the universal definition includes the finding of a serum cardiac troponin concentration above the 99 percentile as defined by healthy individuals, together with time dependant changes in serum and troponin concentrations. But in contrast to individuals with normal kidney function the troponin concentrations in patients with chronic kidney disease, but no myocardial infarction, may already be at concentrations higher than the 99 percentile of a healthy population.