Impact of arteriovenous fistula blood flow on serum il-6, cardiovascular events and death: An ambispective cohort analysis of 64 Chinese hemodialysis patients

PLoS One. 2017 Mar 7;12(3):e0172490. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172490. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Flows (Qa) of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) impact the dialysis adequacy in hemodialysis (HD) patients. However, data for different access flow levels on outcomes related to long-term dialysis patients, especially in Chinese patients, are limited. Herein, we performed an ambispective, mono-centric cohort study investigating the association between the AVF flows and inflammation, cardiovascular events and deaths in Chinese hemodialysis patients bearing a radio-cephalic fistula (AVF) from 2009 to 2015. Twenty-three patients (35.9%) developed at least one episode of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in two years after AVF creation. AVF Qa, IL-6 and hsCRP were significantly higher in patients with CVD than in patients without CVD. Multi-factorial binary logistic regression analysis found that the independent and strongest risk factor for CVD in HD patients was serum IL-6, which showed a positive association with AVF Qa levels in patients. Therefore, the linkage between AVF Qa tertiles and adverse clinical outcomes (cardiovascular events and mortality) was examined over a median follow-up of five years. IL-6 was significantly increased in the high AVF Qa (>1027.13 ml/min) group. Patients with median AVF Qa showed the lowest morbidity and mortality of CVD according to the AVF Qa tertiles, whereas higher Qa was associated with a higher risk of CVD, and lower AVF Qa (600 ml/min ≤AVF Qa <821.12 ml/min) had a higher risk of non-CVD death. Therefore, keeping the AVF Qa at an optimal level (821.12 to 1027.13 ml/min) would benefit HD patients, improve long-term clinical outcomes and lower AVF-induced inflammation.

MeSH terms

  • Arteriovenous Fistula / physiopathology*
  • Biomarkers
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / blood
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / etiology
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / mortality
  • Cohort Studies
  • Cytokines / blood
  • Female
  • Hemodynamics*
  • Humans
  • Inflammation Mediators / blood
  • Interleukin-6 / blood*
  • Male
  • Morbidity
  • Regional Blood Flow*
  • Renal Dialysis / adverse effects
  • Renal Dialysis / mortality*
  • Renal Dialysis / statistics & numerical data
  • Risk Factors
  • Survival Analysis

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Cytokines
  • Inflammation Mediators
  • Interleukin-6

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants 81270770, 81470948, 81270771, 81370798 and 81170686).