Coronary artery calcification score is associated with mortality in Japanese hemodialysis patients.
OBJECTIVE
Coronary artery calcification has been associated with higher mortality in coronary artery disease and chronic kidney disease. This study aimed to correlate coronary artery calcification score (CACS) with all-cause and cardiovascular mortalities in hemodialysis (HD) patients.


METHODS
A survival analysis was conducted in 200 HD patients. CACS was assessed by multidetector-row computed tomography and stratified as tertiles: group 1 (0∼105 U), group 2 (110∼1067 U), and group 3 (1094∼15481 U). The duration of follow-up was 7 years and 4 months. Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard analysis adjusted for age and HD duration were performed to examine the impact of CACS on survival.


METHODS
All-cause and cardiovascular mortalities were measured.


RESULTS
The cumulative all-cause and cardiovascular mortalities of group 1 were significantly lower than those of groups 2 and 3 (all-cause mortality: 7.6% vs. 43.3% and 52.2%, respectively, cardiovascular mortality: 3.0% vs. 22.4% and 26.9%, respectively). Cox proportional hazard analysis adjusted for age and HD duration revealed that all-cause and cardiovascular mortalities of group 1 were significantly lower than those of groups 2 and 3.


CONCLUSIONS
CACS is helpful to predict prognosis of HD patients independently of age and HD duration.
Department of Advanced Medicine for Uremia, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Japan.
Yasuhiko
Y
Shimoyama
Yoshinari
Y
Tsuruta
Toshimitsu
T
Niwa
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003331:Coronary Vessels; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000401:mortality*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D061205:Vascular Calcification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*