Renal (kidney) artery disease

Renal artery disease is a complex condition, which means there is no single best treatment. That’s why, at Aurora Health Care, our nephrologists, cardiologists, radiologists and vascular specialists work together in thoroughly evaluating your symptoms and many other factors to find the most effective treatment – one that is best for you.

What is renal artery disease? 

Renal artery disease, also known as renal artery stenosis, occurs when the arteries that supply blood to your kidneys become stiff and narrow. This narrowing prevents your kidneys from receiving the oxygen-rich blood they need to function properly.

With normal blood flow, your kidneys help filter waste products and remove excess fluids from your body. When the blood flow is reduced, it can injure kidney tissue, decrease your kidneys’ filtering abilities and increase your blood pressure.

Renal artery disease symptoms

Sometimes renal artery stenosis doesn’t cause any symptoms until it becomes more advanced. As the condition progresses, symptoms you may experience include:

• High blood pressure that can’t be controlled by medication or lifestyle changes
• Fluid retention
• Congestive heart failure
• Kidney failure, which may cause weakness, shortness of breath and fatigue

Renal artery disease causes

Most often, renal artery stenosis is caused when plaque builds up in your arteries, a condition known as atherosclerosis.

Certain risk factors are linked to narrowed arteries that can lead to renal artery disease. These include:

• Age 50 or over
• High blood pressure
• High cholesterol
• Smoking
• Diabetes
• Family history of coronary, peripheral or renal artery disease
• Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), a genetic disorder that disrupts cell growth in your nervous system

Renal artery disease diagnosis

To diagnose renal artery disease, we use non- or minimally invasive testing whenever possible so you’re more comfortable and have less downtime. Tests we may order for you include:

• Radiographic imaging, such as a CT scan or MRI
• Duplex ultrasound that uses sound waves to measure your blood flow and estimate blood vessel diameter
• Nuclear medicine testing, such as a captopril renal scan where we use a small amount of radioactive material to take images of your kidneys before and after consuming an ACE inhibitor, which relaxes and widens your blood vessels
• Renal angiogram, where we inject a dye into your renal arteries through a thin, flexible tube called a catheter and use X-ray imaging to see blood flow and find blockages

Find out more about our heart and vascular testing and diagnosis.

Renal artery disease treatment

Our experts are here to help you get the right treatment for renal artery disease before it can progress and lead to kidney failure. Our experienced team of nephrologists, cardiologists, radiologists, surgeons and other vascular specialists will work with you to determine your best treatment.

We may recommend:

• Lifestyle changes, such as:

• Losing weight
• Quitting smoking
• Getting more exercise
• Eating a low-sodium, low-fat diet

• Medications to control high blood pressure
• Interventional procedures, such as renal angioplasty or renal stenting to open your artery so blood can flow more freely
• Surgery, such as renal endarterectomy where we remove the diseased inner lining of your artery and plaque deposits, or renal bypass where we create a new path around the blocked area of your artery

Are you at risk for heart disease?

Knowing your risk factors of heart disease – the leading cause of death in the U.S. – can help you lower your chances of developing it. Our heart health quiz estimates your risk, determines which of your risk factors are controllable and gives you an idea what to do next based on your results.

Take the heart health quiz