The relationship between survival rate and intradialytic blood pressure changes in maintenance hemodialysis patients

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between blood pressure changes and all-cause mortality, and between blood pressure changes and cardiovascular mortality, for maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients during dialysis.

Data regarding general condition, biochemical indices, and survival prognosis of MHD patients who were treated at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine-affiliated Renji Hospital from July 2007 to December 2012 were collected, in order to evaluate the relationship between patients' blood pressure changes during hemodialysis and mortality.

Among 364 patients, with an average age of 63.07 ± 13.93 years, an average dialysis vintage of 76.00 (range, 42.25-134.00) months, and a follow-up time of 54.86 ± 19.84 months, there were 85 cases (23.4%) of all-cause death and 46 cases (14.2%) of cardiovascular death. All-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality were lowest (OR, 0.324 and 0.335; 95% CI, 0.152-0.692 and 0.123-0.911; p value, .004 and .032, respectively) in patients whose systolic blood pressure difference (ΔSBP) before and after dialysis was between 7.09 and 14.25 mmHg. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that both all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality were markedly increased for patients with ΔSBPless than -0.25 mmHg (p value, .001 and .044, respectively). Cox regression analysis showed that ΔSBP< -0.25 mmHg, hemoglobin concentration, Kt/v and albumin were independent risk factors for all-cause mortality in MHD patients.

MHD patients whose blood pressure increased significantly after hemodialysis had a higher risk of dying; ΔSBP, hemoglobin concentration, Kt/v and albumin were independent risk factors for all-cause mortality in MHD patients.