Assessing longitudinal trends in cardiac function among pediatric patients with chronic kidney disease

Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) is an early marker of cardiac disease in pediatric chronic kidney disease (CKD), but few studies have analyzed longitudinal trends. We conducted a prospective 3-year follow-up study in pediatric CKD and kidney transplant (CKD-T) patients.

The patient cohort comprised 30 CKD and 42 CKD-T patients. The results of annual clinical and echocardiographic analyses using tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and pulse wave Doppler (PWD) were assessed, and associations to predictive risk factors were studied using multivariate modeling.

The mean age of CKD and CKD-T patients at inclusion was 9.8 ± 4.4 and 11.8 ± 4.3 years, respectively; the glomerular filtration rate was 35.3 ± 18.3 and 60.3 ± 18.8 mL/min/1.73 m(2), respectively. The prevalence of left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD), as assessed using TDI (lateral z-score e') was 7.1 and 12.5 % in CKD and CKD-T patients, respectively; the corresponding values with PWD E were 3.3 and 2.4 %, respectively. In unadjusted analyses, both TDI and PWD markers of diastolic function worsened over the follow-up period; following adjustments, an elevated systolic ambulatory blood pressure was the most important predictor of cardiac disease.

Children with CKD show early signs of LVDD, with TDI being more sensitive than PWD in terms of diagnostic potential. An increased ambulatory systolic blood pressure predicted progression in diastolic function, suggesting opportunities for future interventions.