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

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 R2*, 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 R2* in CKD patients, suggesting that this drug had an intrarenal hypoxia ameliorating effect.