Clinical commentary: how to choose blood pressure goals and treatment: influence of estimated glomerular filtration rate and albuminuria.

Objective measures of cardiovascular disease are often lacking until patients develop symptoms associated with either coronary, cerebral or peripheral vascular disease. Estimating risk for cardiovascular disease is often based on classic Framingham Heart Study criteria, such as age, gender, blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels and family history. Moreover, there is a well described continuous relationship between blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose and risk for cardiovascular events. Estimating GFR, using simple formulae, and screening quantitatively for albuminuria may provide an important opportunity for identifying patients at increased risk for cardiovascular events. These safe, simple and cost-effective measures of estimating cardiovascular disease risk can be used not only to estimate cardiovascular disease burden, but also to gauge the adequacy of response to cardiovascular risk-reducing therapies.