Excessive sympathetic activation in heart failure with chronic renal failure: role of chemoreflex activation.

Objective: Sympathetic activation contributes both to the initiation and progression of heart failure. The role of chronic renal failure (CRF) in determining sympathetic overactivity in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that in CHF patients, CRF could lead to increase sympathetic activity through tonic activation of excitatory chemoreceptor afferents.