High prevalence of sleep disorders at the time of CKD diagnosis

Sleep disorders are very common in adult and children on maintenance hemodialysis and are not cured by renal transplantation.

Studies in our laboratory of patients with a mean plasma creatinine concentration of 2 mg/dL, studied within 2 months of chronic kidney disease (CKD) diagnosis, have detected a high prevalence of sleep disorders that could not be explained by using the factors prevalent in hemodialysis patients.

To understand if the intrusiveness of the disease is a cause for the high prevalence of sleep disorders in early CKD, we have assessed, by means of a questionnaire, sleep disorders within 1 month from the diagnosis of renal dysfunction.

A total of 100 CKD patients with a mean estimated creatinine clearance of 59.1 +/- 26.7 mL/min were studied. The prevalence of sleep disorders was 89%.

We believe this high prevalence might represent the effects of disease's intrusiveness and difficulty in coping with the disease.