Frequency of renal artery stenosis and variants of renal vascularization in hypertensive patients: analysis of 1550 angiographies in one centre.

Renal artery stenosis (RAS) is an important cause of arterial hypertension and chronic kidney disease. The aims of our study were to assess the prevalence of RAS and to examine the frequency of variants of renal vasculature, that is, multiple and/or accessory renal arteries in hypertensive patients referred to renal angiography. We evaluated retrospectively 1554 arteriographies of hypertensive patients. Angiograms were evaluated to find RAS, significant RAS (>60% stenosis of the lumen), radiological signs of atherosclerosis, aneurysms of the renal arteries or aorta and variants of kidney vascularization. The frequency of RAS including occlusions was 15.1% (21.3% of them were significant and suitable for revascularization). Variants of renal arterial vascularization were found in 26.5% of patients (multiple renal arteries-11.2% and accessory renal arteries-15.3%). Significant RAS was found more frequently in patients older than 60 years-OR 4.76 (2.08-10.86). Coronary artery disease, history of myocardial infarction or stroke significantly increased the chance of RAS detection. The frequency of renal accessory arteries was lower in patients older than 60 years and in patients with the radiological signs of atherosclerosis. Results of this study indicate that haemodynamically important RAS is found more frequently in hypertensive patients older than 60 years. Symptomatic atherosclerotic disease found in the peripheral and/or coronary arteries and diabetes mellitus increases the chance of RAS detection. Decreased occurrence of renal accessory arteries was found in hypertensive patients with radiological signs of atherosclerosis.