Dyslipidemia and risk of renal replacement therapy or death in incident pre-dialysis patients.

Globally the number of patients on renal replacement therapy (RRT) is rising. Dyslipidemia is a potential modifiable cardiovascular risk factor, but its effect on risk of RRT or death in pre-dialysis patients is unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the association between dyslipidemia and risk of RRT or death among patients with CKD stage 4-5 receiving specialized pre-dialysis care, an often under represented group in clinical trials. Of the 502 incident pre-dialysis patients (>18 y) in the Dutch PREPARE-2 study, lipid levels were available in 284 patients and imputed for the other patients. During follow up 376 (75%) patients started RRT and 47 (9%) patients died. Dyslipidemia was defined as total cholesterol ≥5.00 mmol/L, LDL cholesterol ≥2.50 mmol/L, HDL cholesterol <1.00 mmol/L, HDL/LDL ratio <0.4, or triglycerides (TG) ≥2.25 mmol/L, and was present in 181 patients and absent in 93 patients. After multivariable adjustment Cox regression analyses showed a HR (95% CI) for the combined endpoint for dyslipidemia of 1.12 (0.85-1.47), and for high LDL of 1.20 (0.89-1.61). All other HRs were smaller. In conclusion, we did not find an association between dyslipidemia or the separate lipid levels and RRT or death in CKD patients on specialized pre-dialysis care.