Pro-inflammatory cytokines as potential predictors for intradialytic hypotension

Intradialytic hypotension (IDH) is a common complication in maintaining hemodialysis (MHD) patients. Immune activation might be part of the mechanisms. However, the association between pro-inflammatory cytokines and blood pressure (BP) has not been deeply explored. So we aim to evaluate the potential role of pro-inflammatory cytokines in IDH.

MHD patients starting hemodialysis before January 2016 were enrolled in our retrospective study. Patients' characteristics, laboratory results, and intradialytic BP were collected. IDH was defined as nadir systolic BP ≤ 90 mmHg during hemodialysis. The definition of IDH group was that those who suffered from more than one hypotensive event during one month after the enrollment (10% of dialysis treatments). Spearman correlation analysis and logistic regression were employed to explore the relationship between pro-inflammatory cytokines and IDH.

Among 390 patients, 72 were identified with IDH (18.5%). High levels of serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) were observed in the IDH group (p < 0.001). Both TNF-α and IL-1β positively correlated with predialysis BP (p < 0.01). Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of serum IL-1β and TNF-α for IDH. The area under the curve of IL-1β was 0.772 (95% CI: 0.708-0.836, p < 0.01), and that of TNF-α was 0.701 (95% CI: 0.620-0.781, p < 0.01). After adjusting for patients' characteristics, biochemical parameters, comorbid conditions, predialysis BP, and medications, elevated TNF-α and IL-1β were still risk factors for IDH.

Pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α and IL-1β) could be potential predictors for IDH.