Sudden cardiac death linked to dialysis

By Michael Fraase

Tuesday, 23 December 2008 07:42PM CST

Section: ESRD

SickWonderful. A prospective 10-year study of dialysis patients found that fully 22% died from sudden cardiac death (SCD). The study, led by Rulan S. Parekh at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, followed 1,041 dialysis patients, 658 of whom died—146 from SCD—over a median 2.5 years of follow-up.

Parekh’s study found that dialysis patients suffering from systemic inflammation, indicated by high levels of interleukin-6 or C-reactive protein (CRP) were twice as likely to die from SCD. Similarly, dialysis patients with low albumin levels were 35% more likely to die from SCD.

Fine. Eat well to keep albumin up. But dialysis patients have compromised immune systems. Keeping inflammation in the body down, usually caused by infections in dialysis patients, is dang near impossible; chronic inflammation is common in dialysis patients.

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