NDT Advance Access published online on March 16, 2009
Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation, doi:10.1093/ndt/gfp104
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Sudden death and associated factors in a historical cohort of chronic haemodialysis patients
1 Department of Clinical Medicine and Prevention, University of Milano-Bicocca 2 Nephrology Unit, San Gerardo Hospital, Monza 3 Department of Clinical Medicine and Prevention, Medical Statistic Unit, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano 4 Nephrology Unit, Sondrio Hospital, Sondrio 5 Electrophysiology and Cardiac Pacing Unit, San Gerardo Hospital, Monza, Italy
Correspondence and offprint requests to: Simonetta Genovesi; E-mail: simonetta.genovesi{at}unimib.it
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Abstract |
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Background. In haemodialysis patients, deaths due to cardiovascular causes constitute a large proportion of total mortality and sudden cardiac deaths account for 
22% of all deaths. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of sudden cardiac death and associated risk factors in a cohort of haemodialysis patients.
Methods and results. The 3-year cumulative incidence of death in a cohort of 476 patients on chronic haemodialysis treatment was 34.3% (SE 2.3). Sudden death had a 6.9% (SE 1.2) cumulative incidence, with 32 events representing 19.2% of all deaths, while cardiovascular not sudden death and noncardiovascular death accounted for a 3-year cumulative incidence of 7.3% (SE 1.2) and 20.1% (SE 1.9), respectively. According to Cox multivariate analysis, significant risk factors for sudden death were the presence of atrial fibrillation, diabetes mellitus, predialytic hyperkalaemia, haemodialysis mode and C-reactive protein level, which were associated with a 2.9 (CI95% 1.3–6.4), 3.0 (CI95% 1.3–7.2), 2.7 (CI95% 1.3–5.8), 4.5 (CI95% 1.3–15.5) and 3.3 (CI95% 1.2–8.8)-fold increase in the risk of sudden death, respectively. Sudden death was significantly more frequent during the first 24 h of the first short interdialytic interval and during the last 24 h of the long interval, i.e. immediately before and immediately after the first weekly haemodialysis session (P = 0.02).
Conclusions. Our data show that the incidence of sudden death in haemodialysis patients is high and that atrial fibrillation, diabetes, hyperkalaemia, haemodialysis mode and C-reactive protein play an important role in developing fatal arrhythmia. Further studies will be necessary to define which interventions could be helpful in reducing this cause of mortality.
Keywords: atrial fibrillation; diabetes; haemodialysis; hyperkalaemia; sudden death
Received for publication: 4. 8.08
Accepted in revised form: 20. 2.09