title: Association of clinic vascular access monitoring practices with clinical outcomes in hemodialysis patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Early identification of access dysfunctions may be associated with improved patient outcomes. We examined whether patient outcomes were associated with vascular access monitoring practices in an incident dialysis cohort.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a national prospective cohort study and analyzed 363 hemodialysis patients who had a first permanent vascular access (arteriovenous fistula or graft) by 6 months after the start of dialysis. Multivariate methods were used to examine associations between monitoring practices and 6-month Kt/V (reaching Kt/V >/=1.2), access intervention, access failure, and 2-year septicemia and all-cause hospitalization and mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients who received monitoring weekly or more often (49%) were more likely to have an access intervention (adjusted RH = 1.40, 95% CI, 1.07-1.84) than those who received monitoring less frequently. Additionally, patients treated at clinics that reported performing regular access monitoring (80% of patients) were less likely to be hospitalized for septicemia (IRR = 0.35, 95% CI, 0.21-0.61) or for any cause (IRR = 0.77, 95% CI, 0.60-0.99). There were no statistically significant differences between patients exposed to different vascular access monitoring practices in access failure, achievement of Kt/V, or survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Frequent monitoring of dialysis access may initially increase the number of interventions but is beneficial to longer-term outcomes, including septicemia-related and all-cause hospitalization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Md, USA.
authors.forename: Laura C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Plantinga
authors.forename: Bernard G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Jaar
authors.forename: Brad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Astor
authors.forename: Nancy E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Fink
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Eustace
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Klag
authors.forename: Neil R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Powe
mesh_terms: D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000401:mortality*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000401:mortality*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology