Predictors of atherosclerotic events in patients on haemodialysis: post hoc analyses from the AURORA study

Abstract

Background: Patients on haemodialysis (HD) are at high risk for cardiovascular events, but heart failure and sudden death are more common than atherosclerotic events. The A Study to Evaluate the Use of Rosuvastatinin in Subjects on Regular Hemodialysis: An Assessment of Survival and Cardiovascular Events (AURORA) trial was designed to assess the effect of rosuvastatin on myocardial infarction and death from any cardiac cause in 2773 HD patients. We studied predictors of the atherosclerotic cardiovascular events in AURORA.

Methods: We readjudicated all deaths and presumed myocardial infarctions according to the criteria used in the Study of Heart and Renal Protection (SHARP); these were specifically developed to separate atherosclerotic from non-atherosclerotic cardiovascular events. The readjudicated atherosclerotic end point included the first event of the following: non-fatal myocardial infarction, fatal coronary heart disease, non-fatal and fatal non-haemorrhagic stroke, coronary revascularization procedures and death from ischaemic limb disease. Stepwise Cox regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of such events.

Results: During a mean follow-up of 3.2 years, 506 patients experienced the new composite atherosclerotic outcome. Age, male sex, prevalent diabetes, prior cardiovascular disease, weekly dialysis duration, baseline albumin [hazard ratio (HR) 0.96; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.94-0.99 per g/L increase], high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HR 1.13; 95% CI 1.04-1.22 per mg/L increase) and oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (HR 1.09; 95% CI 1.03-1.17 per 10 U/L increase) were selected as significant predictors in the model. Neither LDL cholesterol nor allocation to placebo/rosuvastatin therapy predicted the outcome.

Conclusions: Even with the use of strict criteria for end point definition, non-traditional risk factors, but not lipid disturbances, predicted atherosclerotic events in HD patients.

Keywords: atherosclerosis; coronary artery disease; haemodialysis; statins; vascular calcification.