Patients with CKD with proteinuria and those with CKD stage 5D had 2- and 4-times higher risks for stroke, respectively, than patients without CKD after considering traditional risk factors and competing mortality risk, according to a study published in Nephrology. Minako Wakasugi, PhD, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study that examined stroke incidence and stroke subtypes by CKD stage, whether patients with CKD with or without proteinuria have a high risk for stroke independent of cardiovascular risk factors, and precise estimates for stroke risk by CKD stage while considering mortality risk. After a 5.7-year median follow-up, 157 participants experienced a stroke and 448 died without developing stroke. Among non-dialysis-dependent participants with CKD, most cases of stroke were ischemic. However, the relative frequency of ischemic stroke was near that of intracerebral hemorrhage among patients with CKD who were dialysis dependent.
