Angiotensin II receptor blocker partially ameliorated intrarenal hypoxia in chronic kidney disease patients: A pre-/post-study

Abstract

Chronic intrarenal hypoxia has been regarded as a pathogenic factor of progressive renal damage. However, the lack of available human data has impeded the progress in this field. In this work, blood oxygen level-dependent magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine intrarenal oxygen status pre- and post-angiotensin receptor blockade (olmesartan) treatment in normal subjects, diabetic chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients and non-diabetic CKD patients. The mean R 2 *, which represents intrarenal oxygenation, was significantly lower in the control group than in the CKD group (12.42 ± 0.53/s vs 18.89 ± 3.15/s, P < 0.01), indicating the presence of intrarenal hypoxia in the CKD patients. The olmesartan treatment induced a 16.2 ± 7.7% decrement of the mean R 2 * in CKD patients, suggesting that this drug had an intrarenal hypoxia ameliorating effect. © 2012 The Authors. Internal Medicine Journal © 2012 Royal Australasian College of Physicians.