A negative association between low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level and infection risk in elderly stage 5 chronic kidney disease patients.

BACKGROUND

To explore the relationship between low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level and infection risk in elderly stage 5 kidney disease (CKD) patients.

METHODS

This study retrospectively analyzed all 378 patients with grade 5 CKD over 60 years old treated in the Nephrology Department of our hospital from February 2014 to July 2019, including 286 cases with infection and 92 cases without. According to LDL-C levels, the patients were divided into three groups (Tertile 1-Tertile 3). Basic patient data and laboratory test results were collected for all three groups for analysis.

RESULTS

The incidence of infection showed a gradually decreasing trend in the three groups (from 80.2, 78.6 to 68.3%), along with increasing LDL-C levels from Tertile 1 to Tertile 3, although the differences were not statistically significant (p = 0.075). After fully adjusting for confounding factors, the risk of infection was significantly reduced (OR = 0.646, 95% CI 0.420-0.993, p = 0.046) with increasing LDL-C levels. For the LDL-C levels of the three groups, the rising trend of LDL-C was significantly associated with the reduction in infection risk (OR = 0.545, 95% CI 0.317-0.937, p = 0.028). Curve fitting revealed that LDL-C levels were linearly negatively associated with the risk of infection, and the relationship between the two was not affected by the other factors (p for interaction: 0.567-1.000).

CONCLUSIONS

LDL-C level is linearly negatively associated with the risk of infection in elderly patients with stage 5 CKD.