Elevated Serum Interleukin-18 Level is Correlated with Vascular Access Dysfunction in Patients on Maintenance Haemodialysis

Introduction: We evaluated the impact of serum interleukin-18 (IL-18) level on short-term vascular access (VA) function in chronic haemodialysis (HD) patients.

Materials And Methods: Samples were collected from 80 clinically stable patients (58.8% were men) with a mean age of 60.9 years (standard deviation 11.7 years) who were undergoing maintenance HD and were followed up for 1 year. Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyse data on demographics, biochemical parameters and serum IL-18 level to predict VA dysfunction events. The cut-off for IL-18 was derived from the highest score obtained on Youden index. Survival data was analysed using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier method.

Results: Patients were classified as having either low IL-18 (<199.3 pg/mL) or high IL-18 (≥199.3 pg/mL). Multivariate logistic regression showed that serum IL-18 level was independently correlated with VA dysfunction events; patients with high IL-18 had a higher risk of VA dysfunction events than those with low IL-18 (odds ratio 9.47, 95% confidence interval 1.75-51.31, = 0.009). In patients with high IL-18, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis found that incidence of VA dysfunction was significantly higher than patients with low IL-18 ( = 0.047). After adjustment for age, gender, inflammation (C-reactive protein) and calcium-phosphorus metabolism, decreased serum albumin and increased serum IL-18 levels were found to be independent prognostic predictors of VA dysfunction.

Conclusion: HD patients with high IL-18 level tend to have worse rates of VA dysfunction. In HD outpatients, IL-18 is an independent risk factor for short-term VA dysfunction.