title: Stiffness parameter β as a predictor of the 4-year all-cause mortality of chronic hemodialysis patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is a lack of information on stiffness parameter β, an index of arterial stiffness, in hemodialysis (HD) patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether stiffness parameter β is predictive of the long-term mortality of chronic HD patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We measured biochemical parameters and the stiffness parameter β of 80 patients on maintenance HD therapy and followed their course for 4 years, and we enrolled 70 of these 80 patients in the study. We divided the 70 patients into tertiles according to their stiffness parameter β values, and conducted multivariate analyses to examine the impact of the tertiles on 4-year mortality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Older age and the presence of diabetes mellitus were found to be independently associated with higher stiffness parameter β values. Fifteen patients (21.4 %) died and 16 (22.9 %) experienced a new cardiovascular event during the follow-up period. The results of a Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a significantly higher risk of all-cause mortality in the HD patients with highest stiffness parameter β values (p = 0.0106). According to the ROC curve, the cut-off level that yielded maximal sensitivity and specificity for predicting all-cause mortality was 10.1, and the sensitivity and specificity using the cut-off value were 69.2 and 70.2 %, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study suggest that stiffness parameter β is a predictor of all-cause mortality in chronic HD patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Kidney Center, Tokyo Women's Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: Masayo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Tetsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: Kuniaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Otsuka
authors.forename: Yoshitaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ando
authors.forename: Kosaku
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nitta
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D017536:Carotid Artery, Common / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000401:mortality*; D059289:Vascular Stiffness / Q000502:physiology*