Background

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the main cause of death in patients on chronic dialysis. The question whether dialysis modality impacts cardiovascular risk remains to be addressed. China Collaborative Study on Dialysis, a multi-centers cohort study, was performed to evaluate cardiovascular morbidity during maintenance hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD).

Method

The cohort consisted of chronic dialysis patients from the database of 9 of the largest dialysis facilities around China. The inclusion period was between January 1, 2005, and December 1, 2010. Cardiovascular morbidity was defined as the presence of clinically diagnosed ischemic heart disease, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, and/or stroke. The patients who had cardiovascular morbidity before initiation of dialysis were excluded. Data collection was based on review of medical record.

Result

A total of 2,388 adult patients (1,775 on HD and 613 on PD) were enrolled. Cardiovascular morbidity affected 57% patients and was comparable between HD and PD patients. However, clinically diagnosed ischemic heart disease and stroke was more prevalent in PD than HD patients. When the patients were stratified by age or dialysis vintage, the cardiovascular morbidity was significantly higher in PD than HD among those aged 50 years or older, or those receiving dialysis over 36 months. Multivariate analysis revealed that the risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity had different pattern in PD and HD patients. Hyperglycemia was the strongest risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity in PD, but not in HD patients. Hypertriglyceridemia and hypoalbuminemia were independently associated with CVD only in PD patients.

Conclusions

Cardiovascular morbidity during chronic dialysis was more prevalent in PD than HD patients among those with old age and long-term dialysis. Metabolic disturbance-related risk factors were independently associated with CVD only in PD patients. Better understanding the impact of dialysis modality on CVD would be an important step for prevention and treatment.

Background

Acute worsening of renal function, an independent risk factor for adverse outcomes in acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF), occurs as a consequence of new onset kidney injury (AKI) or acute deterioration of pre-existed chronic kidney disease (CKD) (acute-on-chronic kidney injury, ACKI). However, the possible difference in prognostic implication between AKI and ACKI has not been well established.

Methods

We studied all consecutive patients hospitalized with ADHF from 2003 through 2010 in Nanfang Hospital. We classified patients as with or without pre-existed CKD based on the mean estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) over a six-month period before hospitalization. AKI and ACKI were defined by RIFLE criteria according to the increase of the index serum creatinine.

Results

A total of 1,005 patients were enrolled. The incidence of ACKI was higher than that of AKI. The proportion of patients with diuretic resistance was higher among patients with pre-existed CKD than among those without CKD (16.9% vs. 9.9%, P = 0.002). Compared with AKI, ACKI was associated with higher risk for in-hospital mortality, long hospital stay, and failure in renal function recovery. Pre-existed CKD and development of acute worsening of renal function during hospitalization were the independent risk factors for in-hospital death after adjustment by the other risk factors. The RIFLE classification predicted all-cause and cardiac mortality in both AKI and ACKI.

Conclusions

Patients with ACKI were at greatest risk of adverse short-term outcomes in ADHF. Monitoring eGFR and identifying CKD should not be ignored in patients with cardiovascular disease.