Interview with
Jeffrey H. Burbank
Founder& CEO of NxStage

Hemodialysis.com Editor Marie Benz: What are the main findings of the study?

The main findings of our study are normotensive hemodialysis patients (blood pressure is controlled with hemodialysis with no need of anti-hypertensive medications) carry a relative low risk as compared with general hemodialysis patients,  and left ventricular function but not vascular factors is an independent predictor for outcome.

Hemodialysis.com: Were any of the findings unexpected?

The unexpected finding is vascular factors including pulse wave velocity, augmentation index and carotid artery intima-medial thickness could not stand out as an independent predictor for outcome.

Hemodialysis.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report? 

In care of normotensive hemodialysis patients, we may need to put more effort on cardiac factors to further improve the long-term outcome.

Hemodialysis.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?  

A large scale study with more events are needed to identify early markers of ventricular dysfunction and prospective study with medications such as b-blocker or RAS blocker to further improve the outcome of normotensive hemodialysis patients.

Reference:

Cardiovascular determinants of prognosis in normotensive hemodialysis patients
Wen-Chung Yu, Yao-Ping Lin, Shao-Yuan Chuang, I-Feng Lin and Chen-Huan Chen
BMC Nephrology 2012, 13:115 doi:10.1186/1471-2369-13-115