Renal artery stenosis
The kidneys are supplied by the renal arteries. These organs get rid of excessive or unneeded fluids and minerals by filtering the blood that they receive.
Atherosclerosis of the renal arteries, or a structural abnormality of their wall narrows the caliber of these vessels, which decreases the amount of blood going to the kidneys. The kidneys wrongly infer that the whole body must be suffering from a low blood volume, and they launch a cascade of chemicals that increase the blood volume, referred to as “RAAS” or the Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System. This overwhelms the heart, causing back-up of blood into the lung’s vessels and the onset of acute pulmonary edema.
