Cardiac and kidney disease are common, increasingly encountered and frequently coexist. A consensus classification for the cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) and its specific subtypes has been developed by the Acute Dialysis Quality Initiative (ADQI). The five CRS subtypes have a similar underlying pathophysiology, however they likely have distinguishing features in terms of precipitating events, risk identification, natural history and outcomes. An appreciation for the epidemiology of heart-kidney interface, across the proposed CRS subtypes, is fundamental for understanding the overall burden of disease for each CRS subtype, along with associated morbidity, mortality, and health resource utilization. Likewise, an understanding of the epidemiology of CRS is fundamental for characterizing whether important knowledge gaps exist and for design of further epidemiologic investigations and interventional and/or therapeutic clinical trials. This review will provide a summary of the epidemiology of the CRS and its subtypes.
2010 S. Karger AG, Basel.