OBJECTIVE

To explore the cause of early death (death within 3-12 months after hemodialysis) and the related influencing factors patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) as to provide a scientific basis for the prevention of early death.

METHODS

A retrospective matched controlled study was conducted. Fifty-one patients who underwent MHD from January 2004 to April 2014 and died within 3-12 months after hemodialysis in hemodialysis center of the 174th Chinese People's Liberation Army Hospital were included in the case group by retrospective analysis method. According to 1:2 matched controls, 102 patients underwent hemodialysis in the same period (±2 months) and survived over 12 months were selected as control group. All patients received regular hemodialysis (dialysis 2-3 times per week), with conventional limitation of water and sodium intake, routine treatments such as control of blood pressure, treatment of anemia and disorders of calcium and phosphorus contents. Causes of short-term death were analyzed. Clinical and biochemical parameters of two groups were collected when dialysis was started, and the single factor and multiple factors logistic regression was used to analyze the related risk factors when dialysis was started. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was plotted to evaluate the value of above parameters in predicting the early death in patents with MHD.

RESULTS

The main causes of early death of 51 patients with MHD were mainly cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases (27 cases, 52.9%), and infections (15 cases, 29.4%). It was shown by single factor analysis that the age [odds ratio (OR) = 6.625, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 3.232-13.580, P = 0.000 ], diabetes (OR = 3.875, 95%CI = 0.654 - 10.622, P = 0.031), specialist intervention time before dialysis (OR = 0.349, 95%CI = 0.287 - 0.572, P = 0.004), the emergence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events before dialysis (OR = 9.667, 95%CI = 4.632 - 20.174, P = 0.000), the first dialysis for emergency dialysis (OR = 3.875, 95%CI = 1.713 - 8.765, P = 0.005), blood albumin level (OR = 0.294, 95%CI = 0.068 - 0.550, P = 0.008), leukocyte count (OR = 6.286, 95%CI = 1.648 - 23.982, P = 0.026), neutrophil count (OR = 2.833, 95%CI = 1.630 - 4.923, P = 0.001) might be the factors correlating with early death. Eight independent factors were statistically significant, and their effect on the MHD patients was analyzed by logistic regression analysis in α = 0.05 level. The results showed that patients with old age (OR = 1.054, 95%CI = 1.019-1.090, P = 0.002), and the emergence of cardio-cerebrovascular events (OR = 7.469, 95%CI = 2.474 - 22.545, P = 0.000) were early death risk factors of MHD patients, and early specialist intervention before dialysis was a protective factor (OR = 0.286, 95%CI = 0.113-0.722, P = 0.008). ROC curve showed that age had moderate diagnostic value for early death of MHD [area under ROC curve (AUC) = 0.756], the cut-off value was 59.0 years old, the sensitivity was 66.7%, and the specificity was 77.5%. The diagnostic value of early specialist intervention before dialysis was relatively low (AUC = 0.36), the cut-off value was 0.875 years, the sensitivity was 39.2%, and the specificity was 33.3%.

CONCLUSIONS

Old age, the emergency of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events before dialysis is associated with early death, and specialist intervention ahead of dialysis can reduce the risk of early death.