Kidney function and anemia as risk factors for coronary heart disease and mortality: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2005.03.055 Byline: Brad C. Astor (a)(c), Josef Coresh (a)(b)(c)(d), Gerardo Heiss (e), Dan Pettitt (f), Mark J. Sarnak (g) Abstract: Kidney failure causes anemia and is associated with a very high risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Mildly to moderately decreased kidney function is far more common and also is associated with an elevated prevalence of anemia and CHD risk. Recent data suggest an even higher risk of CHD when both conditions are present. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Epidemiology, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD (b) Department of Biostatistics, The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD (c) Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (d) Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD (e) Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC (f) Department of Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Amgen, Inc, Thousand Oaks, CA (g) Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Tufts New England Medical Center, Boston, MA Article History: Received 30 November 2004; Accepted 27 March 2005 Article Note: (footnote) The ARIC Study was funded by contracts N01HC55015, N01HC55016, N01HC55018, N01HC55019, N01HC55020, N01HC55021, and N01HC55022 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Bethesda, Md. This work was supported in part by Amgen, Inc, Thousand Oaks, Calif, and by a grant from the American Heart Association Mid Atlantic Affiliate, Baltimore, Md, and by grant T32HL07024-23 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Dr Astor) and by an American Heart Association Established Investigator Award (Dr Coresh). We thank the staff and participants in the ARIC Study for their important contributions. The authors maintained control over the content of the manuscript.