Association between ADAMTS13 deficiency and cardiovascular events in chronic hemodialysis patients

A mild decrease of ADAMTS13 (a disintegrin and metalloprotease with thrombospodin type 1 motif 13) could attribute to stroke and coronary heart disease in general population. However, the role of ADAMTS13 in hemodialysis (HD) patients remains to be explored. This cross-sectional and observational cohort study enrolled 98 chronic HD patients and 100 normal subjects with the aims to compare the ADAMTS13 activity between chronic HD patients and normal subjects, and to discover the role of ADAMTS13 on the newly developed cardiovascular events for HD patients in a 2-year follow-up. Our HD patients had a significantly lower ADAMTS13 activity than normal subjects, 41.0 ± 22.8% versus 102.3 ± 17.7%, p < 0.001. ADAMTS13 activity was positively correlated with diabetes, triglyceride and hemoglobin A1c, and negatively with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in HD patients. With a follow-up of 20.3 ± 7.3 months, the Cox proportional hazards model revealed that low ADAMTS13, comorbid diabetes, and coronary heart diseases have independent correlations with the development of cardiovascular events. Our study demonstrated that chronic HD patients have a markedly decreased ADAMTS13 activity than normal subjects. Although ADAMTS13 seems to correlate well with diabetes, high triglyceride and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, ADAMTS13 deficiency still carries an independent risk for cardiovascular events in chronic HD patients.