Cardiovascular Events and Mortality in Chronic Kidney Disease (stages I-IV)

Introduction: Cardiovascular events (CV) are the major cause of mortality in chronic kidney disease patients (CKD). The aim of the present study was to determine the independent predictors of CV and mortality in CKD patients (stages 1-4).

Methods: A prospective study was conducted with 218 patients (62% male), with a median age of 69 years (interquartile range 56-78). Basally, demographic variables, CV risk factors and biochemical values were collected. During follow-up, new CV events and deaths were collected (final variable).

Results: During follow-up (38 [37-39] months), 50 patients suffered a final event: 37 patients (17%) had a CV and 13 (6%) died due to a non-CV death. Having a final event was associated to male sex, smoker, diabetes mellitus, history of CV event, low diastolic blood pressure values, low glomerular filtration, urine albumin/creatinine higher than 1000 mg/g, higher troponin T levels, higher BNP levels, higher CRP levels and lower haemoglobin levels. Multivariate analysis, showed that only male sex, diabetes mellitus, previous CV event and lower glomerular filtration independently predicted having the final event.

Conclusion: Male sex, diabetes mellitus, previous CV event and lower glomerular filtration independently predicted having a CV event or death in CKD patients. We could not demonstrate the superiority of emerging CV risk markers compared to the classic ones.