Background Pulmonary hypertension is a disorder which worsens systemic diseases. One of the important underlying pathology is end stage chronic kidney disease The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of unexplained PHT, and to relate this to the cardiovascular status and arteriovenous fistula characteristics in ESKD patients on maintenance hemodialysis
Methods: 159 patients with end stage kidney disease on maintenance hemodialysis were evaluated, 103 were excluded. Clinical, laboratory parameters were recorded. Systolic Pulmonary artery pressure and cardiac functions were evaluated by echocardiography. Flow across arteriovenous fistula was assessed by Doppler sonography. Patients were divided between the group with and without pulmonary hypertension. It was a cross sectional study.
Result: Out of 159 patients, 56 patients who fulfilled inclusion criteria were evaluated, 36% had systolic pulmonary artery pressure of 35 mm Hg, mean age was 52.42 ± 9.12 years, 71.4% were males, and mean duration of end stage kidney disease was 33.66 ±11.56 months. Pulmonary hypertension patients were exposed to longer duration of hemodialysis therapy (p=0.0001) as compared to the patients with no pulmonary hypertension group, they also had a longer duration of functional Arterio venous fistula (p=0.0001), and flow across Arterio venous fistula was significantly more in pulmonary hypertension group (p=0.022), and these also had higher cardiac output (p=0.0001). Patients with Pulmonary hypertension were significantly more anemic, had more hypoalbuminemia and more interdialytic weight gain.
Conclusions: Pulmonary hypertension is frequent in end-stage kidney disease patients on maintenance hemodialysis. It appears to be a late complication of hemodialysis with surgically created AVF with implications on cardiovascular status.
Keywords: Arterio venous fistula (AVF), End-stage kidney disease (ESKD), Maintenance hemodialysis (MHD), pulmonary hypertension (PHT).Systolic pulmonary artery pressure (sPAP)