Role of smoking history in patients with kidney disease
Why is smoking history important in patients with kidney disease?
Chronic kidney disease has been shown to be closely related to cardiovascular disease and smoking.
The concept of smoking as an “independent” progression factor in kidney disease has been a subject of interest in numerous investigations.
Since 2003 several publications of clinical and experimental data concerning the adverse kidney effects of smoking have drawn interest, including large, prospective, population-based, observational studies.
These studies clearly demonstrate that smoking is a relevant risk factor, and it does confer a significant increase in the risk for progression of kidney dysfunction (i.e., elevation of serum creatinine) regardless of the underlying cause of the kidney disease.
It has been suggested that urinary cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, can potentially be used as an objective measure of smoking exposure. Its use has not been studied in the population with chronic kidney disease.
