Objective: Peritoneal transport status is one of the main determinants of dialysis adequacy and dialysis-related complications in end-stage renal disease patients receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). In this study we aimed to investigate the relationship between peritoneal transport characteristics and known promoters of atherosclerosis in a group of patients receiving CAPD for a minimum of 36 months.
Design and participants: We performed a cross-sectional study of a cohort of 84 patients with end-stage renal disease (37 men, 47 women; age, 44.0 +/- 15.7 years; dialysis duration, 40.3 +/- 8.1 months) who were receiving CAPD for minimum 36 months. Peritoneal transport characteristics were identified after a peritoneal equilibration test (PET) determined at the third month of CAPD using Dialysate/Plasma (D/P) reference values. Patients were classified according to one of four peritoneal transport types: high (H), high-average (HA), low-average (LA), and low (L). After PET, patients were grouped as high (H/HA group, n = 51) or low (L/LA group, n = 33) transporters. The patient groups' clinical and laboratory data before dialysis and after initiation of the CAPD were collected retrospectively. The patients' follow-up data were retrieved for the diagnosis of any atherosclerosis-related event after the initiation of CAPD. The following events were collected, including myocardial infarction, having been diagnosed as having coronary artery disease by angiography or myocardium scintigraphy, cerebrovascular accident, and development of clinically evident peripheral arterial disease.
Results: A comparison of follow-up data revealed that the H/HA transport characteristic was associated with lower albumin (P < .01), higher C-reactive protein (CRP) (P < .0001) levels, and higher recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) needs (P < .001) when compared with the L/LA type. During follow-up, 28 patients showed an atherosclerosis-related event. Twenty-two of these were in the H/HA group (43.1%), whereas only six were in the L/LA group (18.1%, P < .01). Reanalysis of 18 patients with atherosclerosis-related events and high CRP levels (> 10 mg/L) showed that 15 were in the H/HA and 3 were in the L/LA group. Sixty-eight percent of the H/HA patients with atherosclerosis and 50% of the L/LA patients with an atherosclerotic event also had chronic inflammation (P < .001). A Pearson correlation analysis showed that there was a positive correlation between D/P creatinine levels and 36-month mean CRP levels (r = 0.608, P < .0001), and a negative correlation between D/P creatinine levels and 36-month mean albumin levels (r = -0.299, P < .005).
Conclusions: This study shows that the high transporter peritoneal membrane characteristic is a risk factor for inflammatory state in patients with end-stage renal disease. High-transporter patients are at an increased risk of atherosclerosis when compared with their low-transporter counterparts through chronic inflammation.