title: The independent association of renal dysfunction and arrhythmias in critically ill patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of this study was to quantify the impact of baseline renal dysfunction on incidence and occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias in the coronary ICU.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Renal dysfunction is an established predictor of all-cause mortality in the ICU setting. We set out to evaluate the independent contributory effect of renal dysfunction to arrhythmias and mortality in this population.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed a prospective coronary care unit registry of 12,648 admissions by 9,557 patients over 8 years at a single, tertiary center. An admission serum creatinine level was available for 9,544 patients. Those patients not receiving long-term dialysis were classified into quartiles of corrected creatinine clearance with cutpoints of 46.2 mL/min/72 kg (group 1), 63.1 mL/min/72 kg, and 81.5 mL/min/72 kg. Dialysis patients (n = 527) were considered as a fifth comparison group (group 5).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Baseline characteristics including older age, African-American race, diabetes, hypertension, history of previous coronary disease, and heart failure were incrementally more common with increasing renal dysfunction strata. There were graded, independent increased risks for accelerated idioventricular rhythm (relative risk [RR], 2.43; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.40 to 4.20; p = 0.002), sustained ventricular tachycardia (RR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.02 to 4.22; p = 0.04), ventricular fibrillation (RR, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.13 to 5.15; p = 0.02), and complete heart block (RR, 3.64; 95% CI, 1.77 to 7.48; p = 0.0004, group 5 vs group 1).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We conclude that baseline renal function is a powerful, independent predictor of cardiac arrhythmias in the coronary ICU population.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, and Henry Ford Heart and Vascular Institute, Detroit, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Sandeep S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Soman
authors.forename: Keisha R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Sandberg
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Borzak
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.forename: Jerry
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yee
authors.forename: Peter A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: McCullough
mesh_terms: D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000401:mortality*; D001919:Bradycardia / Q000401:mortality; D003325:Coronary Care Units; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood; D016638:Critical Illness; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D051437:Renal Insufficiency / Q000401:mortality*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000401:mortality
chemical_list: D003404:Creatinine