Carotid–Femoral Pulse Wave Velocity Could Be a Marker to Predict Cardiovascular and All-Cause Mortality of Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract

Among hemodialysis (HD) patients, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is recognized as a major contributor to the high risk of mortality, and emerging evidence has ascertained arterial stiffness as an independent predictor of adverse cardiovascular (CV) outcomes. We aimed to investigate the efficacy of arterial stiffness measurement in predicting CV and all-cause mortality in patients on HD (n = 130). Carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) was measured by a validated tonometry system. A cfPWV of >10 m/s was used to assign patients to the arterial stiffness group (n = 64). Baseline and biochemical characteristics, as well as all-cause and CV mortality, were recorded. During the 3-year follow-up period, a total of 32 deaths (25%) occurred. The patients who died had clinically significant high cfPWV levels; were relatively old; and had hypoalbuminemia, low creatinine levels, and diabetes. After adjustment for the prognostic variables, patients with elevated cfPWV had significantly higher all-cause (p = 0.036) and CV mortality (p = 0.017), compared with the mortality rates in the normal group. In this study, cfPWV was found to be an independent predictor of all-cause and CV mortality in HD patients.