Roles of triglyceride and phosphate in atherosclerosis of diabetic hemodialysis patients

Background: A growing number of patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) are undergoing long-term hemodialysis (HD). HD needs a vascular access (VA) and complications of VA account for a sizable proportion of its costs. One of the important cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is atherosclerosis, which is a major cause of premature deaths in the world. So, it is essential to find the risk factors to treat them before they cause an obvious CVD. Methods: We analyzed data from 174 ESRD patients who were candidate for Arterio Venous Fistula (AVF) creation from April 2008 to March 2009 in Hasheminejad Kidney Center by convenient sampling. X-ray images were used and C 4.5 algorithm of data mining techniques revealed the roles of two risk factors for atherosclerosis of diabetic ESRD patients. Pearson coefficient was also used to measure the correlation between the parameters. Results: Diabetic patients had significantly more calcified arteries in their forearm X-ray than other patients (p<0.001). Occurrence of atherosclerotic CVD in diabetic HD patients has an adverse relation compared with the controlled levels of their plasma levels of Triglyceride (TG) and Phosphorus. We found an inverse effect of TG and phosphorus plasma levels on the atherosclerotic involvement of radial and ulnar arteries in diabetic HD patients. We observed that the prevalence of radial and ulnar arteries calcification in these patients is lower when they have higher plasma levels of TG and phosphorous. Conclusion: This study investigates the role of high plasma levels of TG and phosphorous in the development of atherosclerosis in diabetic HD patients. Although many studies showed that hypertriglyceridemia plays a promoting role in the development of CVD, our study also found an inverse effect of plasma levels of TG on the atherosclerotic involvement of radial and ulnar arteries in diabetic patients, and therefore our results support this suspicion that hypertriglyceridemia plays a significant role in developing atherosclerosis.