title: Decrease of glomerular filtration rate may be attributed to the microcirculation damage in renal artery stenosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The decrease of glomerular filtration rate has been theoretically supposed to be the result of low perfusion in renal artery stenosis (RAS). But the gap between artery stenosis and the glomerular filtration ability is still unclear.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with selective renal artery angiogram were divided by the degree of renal artery narrowing, level of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), respectively. The different levels of eGFR, renal microcirculation markers, and RAS severity were compared with each other, to determine the relationships among them.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 215 consecutive patients were enrolled in the prospective cohort study. Concentrations of microcirculation markers had no significant difference between RAS group (RAS ≥ 50%) and no RAS group (RAS < 50%) or did not change correspondingly to RAS severity. The value of eGFR in RAS group was lower than that in the no RAS group, but it did not decline parallel to the progressive severity of RAS. The microcirculation markers presented integral difference if grouped by different eGFR level with negative tendency, especially that plasma cystatin C (cysC) and urinary microalbumin to creatinine ratio (mACR) increased with the deterioration of eGFR, with strong (r = -0.713, P < 0.001) and moderate (r = -0.580, P < 0.001) correlations. In the subgroup analysis of severe RAS (RAS ≥ 80%), the levels of plasma cysC and urinary mACR demonstrated stronger negative associations with eGFR, (r = -0.827, P < 0.001) and (r = -0.672, P < 0.001) correlations, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Severity of RAS could not accurately predict the value of eGFR, whereas microcirculation impairment may substantially contribute to the glomerular filtration loss in patients with RAS.
authors.forename: Hao-Jian
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: De-Mou
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Jing-Guang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.forename: Jun-Qing
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Guang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Jian-Fang
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong General Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou 510100, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Ling
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005919:Glomerular Filtration Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012078:Renal Artery Obstruction / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies