NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many of the risk factors tied to heart disease -- such as hypertension, diabetes, and smoking -- are also risk factors for new-onset kidney disease, findings from a new study indicate. It remains to be seen if modifying these risk factors reduces the likelihood of renal disease.

To identify predictors of kidney disease, Dr. Caroline S. Fox, from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues analyzed data from 2585 adult subjects who participated in the Framingham Offspring Study. The patients were free of kidney disease at baseline examination in 1978-1982 and returned for follow-up examination in 1998-2001.

The researchers' findings are reported in the February 18th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

During an average follow-up period of 18.5 years, 9.4% of the subjects developed kidney disease, the researchers report.

On multivariate analysis, baseline risk factors for kidney disease included increasing age, elevated body mass index, a decreased glomerular filtration rate (GFR), diabetes, and smoking. Long-term, averaged risk factors for kidney disease included hypertension, decreased HDL cholesterol levels, and diabetes as well as increasing age and decreased GFR.

Decreased GFR was a particularly strong risk factor for kidney disease kidney disease nearly threefold.

"We have shown that established cardiovascular disease risk factors are predictors of the development of kidney disease," the researchers state determine if "risk factor modification can slow the progression of kidney disease," they add.

JAMA 2004;291:844-850.

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