The National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive, and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) established the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study in 2001. The principal goals of the CRIC Study are to examine risk factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression (i.e. further loss of kidney function) and cardiovascular events among patients with varying severity of CKD, and develop predictive models that will identify high-risk subgroups with CKD. The latter results will target enrollment of high-risk subjects into future treatment trials and increase application of available preventive therapies. Hypertension treatment has been the most effective intervention altering the course of renal function loss in CKD. However, the drugs used in the treatment of hypertension differ in their benefits on renal function. This raises the possibility that blood pressure reduction by itself only partly explains their beneficial effect and beckons a broader understanding of vascular adaptation to diseases such as CKD. Determination of the pulse wave velocity (PWV) a reflection of large vessel stiffness has provided useful information in cardiovascular disease epidemiology.
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