title: Epidemiology and mortality in dialysis patients with and without polycystic kidney disease: a national study in Taiwan.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Polycystic kidney disease (PCKD) is one of the most common inherited disorders in end-stage renal disease patients. It is generally thought that the survival of PCKD patients undergoing dialysis surpasses that of general dialysis patients, but the cause of this improved survival is not clear.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using Taiwan's national health insurance claims data, we performed a longitudinal cohort study to investigate the survival and impact of comorbidities on mortality in dialysis patients with and without PCKD. We excluded patients without diabetes mellitus (DM) in a further analysis. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to identify the risk factors for all-cause mortality. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to describe overall patient survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five hundred and one (2.25%) of 22,298 nondiabetic incident dialysis patients had PCKD. We found no significant difference in survival rates between those with and without PCKD. Being male, being over 65 years old and having congestive heart failure or cerebrovascular accident were each found to be independent predictors of mortality in the PCKD dialysis patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taiwan has a lower incidence rate of PCKD than Western countries. In Taiwan, there is little difference in the long-term survival between dialysis patients with and without PCKD.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Pei-Wen
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Chih-Chiang
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chien
authors.forename: Wu-Chang
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jhi-Joung
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Chih-Ching
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D007690:Polycystic Kidney Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000401:mortality*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology