| [ Summary ] |
Many dialysis patients are thought to be in a state of latent chronic heart failure, mainly arising from diastolic dysfunction and preload. This is reflected in the fact that "heart failure" has long ranked first among causes of dialysis patient death.
"Dialysis heart" has been proposed as a cause of refractory heart failure. The concept of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) has changed, and "dialysis heart" distinguished from uremic cardiomyopathy is a clinically important syndrome which will influence how a stable dialysis operation is maintained. For heart failure due to ischemic heart diseases or vaslcular heart diseases, the therapeutic approach itself is relatively straightforward as the same policy used in non-dialysis patients can be applied, once the particular characteristics of a dialysis patient are understood. However, renal transplantation is currently considered to be a significant and effective treatment for "dialysis heart", in which it is most important that diagnosis by exclusion be carried out. |