Baseline characteristics and prevalence of cardiovascular disease in newly visiting or referred chronic kidney disease patients to nephrology centers in Japan: a prospective cohort study

Background About 39,000 patients were newly prescribed renal replacement therapy in Japan in 2011, resulting in a total of more than 300,000 patients being treated with dialysis. This high prevalence of treated end stage kidney disease (ESKD) patients is an emergent problem that requires immediate attention. We launched a prospective cohort study to evaluate population specific characteristics of the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). In this report, we describe the baseline characteristics and risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence among this cohort.