title: Pulmonary hypertension in end-stage renal disease and post renal transplantation patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Information regarding lung function parameters and functional capacity in renal failure and post renal transplantation patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) is limited. The purpose of this study was to examine the clinical characteristics of patients with PH who were receiving hemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD) or who had undergone renal transplantation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective study was performed on 116 patients (HD =55, PD =17, and post renal transplantation =44) who underwent Doppler echocardiography. PH was defined as systolic pulmonary artery pressure (SPAP) ≥40 mmHg. Demographic information, clinical characteristics, pulmonary function tests (PFTs) and the six-minute walk test (6MWT) were collected and compared between the patients with and without PH.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twelve (21.8%) patients receiving HD, four (23.5%) patients receiving PD, and eight (18.2%) post renal transplantation patients had PH. In the HD group, the physiological indicators (including pulmonary function test parameters, the final Borg score, and walking distance during the 6MWT) were all significantly lower in the patients with PH compared with those without PH (all P<0.0001). However, in the PD and post renal transplantation groups, no significant differences were noted in the demographic characteristics or in the physiological parameters when the PH patients were compared with those without PH (all P>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Among HD patients, marked aberrations in PFT results or walking distance may identify a subset of patients suffering from PH.
authors: 1 Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, 2 Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Research Chair for Kidney Disease, 3 Department of Cardiac sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ; 4 Foothills Medical Center, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors: Esam H
authors: EH
authors: Alhamad
authors: 1 Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, 2 Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Research Chair for Kidney Disease, 3 Department of Cardiac sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ; 4 Foothills Medical Center, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors: Mohammed
authors: M
authors: Al-Ghonaim
authors: 1 Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, 2 Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Research Chair for Kidney Disease, 3 Department of Cardiac sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ; 4 Foothills Medical Center, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors: Hussam F
authors: HF
authors: Alfaleh
authors: 1 Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, 2 Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Research Chair for Kidney Disease, 3 Department of Cardiac sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ; 4 Foothills Medical Center, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors: Joseph P
authors: JP
authors: Cal
authors: 1 Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, 2 Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Research Chair for Kidney Disease, 3 Department of Cardiac sciences, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ; 4 Foothills Medical Center, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors: Nazmi
authors: N
authors: Said
keywords: Pulmonary hypertension (PH); functional capacity; hemodialysis (HD); lung function; renal failure