Author(s)

Kiyotsugu Omae, Tetsuya Ogawa, Masao Yoshikawa, Michihiro Mitobe, Kosaku Nitta

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INTRODUCTION: Since the outcomes associated with the use of renin-angiotensin-system inhibitors (RASi) by hemodialysis (HD) patients are not fully known, we investigated their effect on the cardiovascular mortality of chronic HD patients. METHODS: Data from 388 HD patients (237 men and 151 women) who were routinely treated for at least 6 months were analyzed. Treatment with a RASi was the major predictor variable. The main outcome measure was cardiovascular mortality. Cox regression analysis was used to assess for the use of RASi and risk of death. RESULTS: Hypertension was diagnosed in 320 patients (82.5%), and 197 (50.8%) of them were treated with a RASi (treated group) and 191 (49.2%) were not (untreated group). The treated group had a higher prevalence of hypertension, history of congestive heart failure, and presence of ST-T changes. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a reduction in risk of cardiovascular death in the treated group during the follow-up period (fig. 2; log-rank: p=0.0379). The multivariate analysis showed that treatment with a RASi was also independently associated with reduced cardiovascular mortality (hazard ratio= 0.184; p=0.0161). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study suggest a possible association between the treatment with RASi and reduced risk of cardiovascular mortality, independent of their effect of lowering blood pressure.

Renin-Angiotensin-System Inhibitors, Cardiovascular Outcomes, Hypertension, Hemodialysis

K. Omae, T. Ogawa, M. Yoshikawa, M. Mitobe and K. Nitta, "Inhibition of the Renin-Angiotensin System and Cardiovascular Mortality in Chronic Hemodialysis Patients," International Journal of Clinical Medicine, Vol. 2 No. 2, 2011, pp. 57-63. doi: 10.4236/ijcm.2011.22011.