title: Occurrence and significance of heart disease in uraemia. An autopsy study.
abstract: The occurrence of heart disease in uraemic patients was evaluated from study of 94 autopsied cases of chronic renal failure. The most common autopsy-ascertained causes of death were congestive heart failure (37%), acute myocardial infarction (13%) and tamponading pericarditis (8%). Death from congestive heart failure was significantly more common among the patients aged 60 or more than in the younger group. Hypertension was recorded in 59% of the patients, including all those with fatal myocardial infarction. Coronary arteriosclerosis was graded as absent to mild in about 40% of the patients. More severe grades occurred predominantly in the older patients. Tamponading pericarditis almost exclusively affected patients in haemodialysis. The authors conclude that most deaths among patients with end-stage renal failure were due to congestive heart failure. Ischaemic heart disease did not seem to be a more common cause of death than in the general population.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001344:Autopsy; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014511:Uremia / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*