Effect of Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System Blockade on Outcomes in Patients With ESRD: A Prospective Cohort Study in Korea

Coronary artery bypass grafting vs. drug-eluting stent implantation in patients with end-stage renal disease requiring dialysis

Objectives

To evaluate the optimal revascularization strategy for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and end stage renal disease (ESRD) in the drug-eluting stent (DES) era.

Methods

One hundred and twelve patients with ESRD treated with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were enrolled from 2007 to 2017. All patients were dialysis-dependent, of which 26 received CABG and 86 underwent PCI. The primary endpoint was all-cause mortality. Secondary endpoints were major adverse cardiovascular events including myocardial infarction, stroke, repeat revascularization, and death.

Results

The CABG group had a higher prevalence of left main CAD (57.7% vs. 11.6%, p < .01) compared with PCI group. The short-term (within 30 days after the procedure) risk of death was higher in CABG group compared with PCI group (15.4% vs. 1.2%, p < .05). The two groups exhibited similar rate of primary endpoints (50.0% vs. 40.7%, p = .37) and secondary endpoints (65.4% vs. 60.5%, p = .97) in long-term observation. Multivariate Cox regression showed that patients older than 65 or underwent peritoneal dialysis (PD) had significant higher rate of mortality than those under 65 (HR 2.85; 95% CI 1.20–6.85; p < .05) or underwent hemodialysis (HD) (HR 6.69; 95% CI 2.35–19.05; p < .01).

Conclusions

Among patients with CAD and dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD), treatment with CABG or PCI with DES exhibited similar long-term outcomes. However, CABG was associated with higher short-term risk of death. Higher mortality was revealed in patients over 65 years and underwent PD.

Prediction of the Mortality Risk in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients using Machine Learning Models: A Nation-wide Prospective Cohort in Korea

Herein, we aim to assess mortality risk prediction in peritoneal dialysis patients using machine-learning algorithms for proper prognosis prediction. A total of 1,730 peritoneal dialysis patients in the CRC for ESRD prospective cohort from 2008 to 2014 were enrolled in this study. Classification algorithms were used for prediction of N-year mortality including neural network. The survival hazard ratio was presented by machine-learning algorithms using survival statistics and was compared to conventional algorithms. A survival-tree algorithm presented the most accurate prediction model and outperformed a conventional method such as Cox regression (concordance index 0.769 vs 0.745). Among various survival decision-tree models, the modified Charlson Comorbidity index (mCCI) was selected as the best predictor of mortality. If peritoneal dialysis patients with high mCCI (>4) were aged ≥70.5 years old, the survival hazard ratio was predicted as 4.61 compared to the overall study population. Among the various algorithm using longitudinal data, the AUC value of logistic regression was augmented at 0.804. In addition, the deep neural network significantly improved performance to 0.841. We propose machine learning-based final model, mCCI and age were interrelated as notable risk factors for mortality in Korean peritoneal dialysis patients.

Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System Blockades Does Not Protect Residual Renal Function in Patients with Hemodialysis at 1 Year After Dialysis Initiation: A Prospective Observational Cohort Study

The beneficial effects of renin angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS) blockade on residual renal function (RRF) in patients who have just initiated hemodialysis (HD) have been inconclusive. In this study, 935 patients with incident HD from a nationwide prospective observational cohort in Korea were included for analysis. The primary outcome showed that RRF as demonstrated by urine volume changes over 0, 3, and 12 months differed between the RAAS blockade and control groups. Mixed-effects linear regression was used to compare RRF between the groups. Patients in the RAAS group had a greater proportion of higher urine volume at study enrollment compared to the control group, but there was no difference in baseline characteristics, heart function, and dialysis-related indices. After adjusting for confounding factors, the RAAS group did not provide a significant benefit to RRF in a mixed-effects linear regression (p = 0.51). Male gender, high Charlson comorbidity index, diuretic use, and high weekly ultrafiltration volume were associated with faster decline in RRF. The RAAS group failed to provide a protective effect for the development of anuria 1 year after initiating dialysis based on the multivariate logistic regression (OR 0.73 95% CI 0.25-2.13, p = 0.57). In Korean patients with incident HD, RAAS blockade did not provide a protective effect for RRF after 1 year. Further research is needed to clarify the optimal treatment for preserving RRF in HD patients.