Hypertension is the most common cardiovascular disease (CVD) comorbidity seen among dialysis patients globally, according to a study presented at Kidney Week, the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, held from Oct. 23 to 27 in San Diego. Belen Alejos, Ph.
D., from Fresenius Medical Care in Bad Homburg, Germany, and colleagues analyzed CVD prevalence among 543,169 dialysis patients treated in 40 countries across six continents. The analysis included data from the first version of a global dialysis database (Apollo Dial DB; January 2018 to March 2021).
The researchers found that 79 percent of included patients reported at least one CVD condition, including most commonly hypertension (73.6 percent). There were some differences observed in the prevalence of CVD conditions by age and sex.
For example, atherosclerotic heart disease affected 19.0 percent, with prevalence increasing with age (9.9 percent in ages 18 to 44 years to 24.
1 percent in ages 75 years and older). Atherosclerotic heart disease was also more common in men (20.3 percent) than women (17.
2 percent). A similar trend was seen for congestive heart failure , which affected 17.5 percent overall but increased with age.
Other lower prevalence conditions, such as peripheral vascular disease (11.5 percent), cardiomyopathy (7.3 percent), and cardiac dysrhythmias (7.
1 percent), were all more prevalent in older age groups and in men. "Hypertension is the most common CVD comorbidity among dialysis patients glob.