Canadian Hemodialysis Morbidity Study

Logistic regression analysis was applied to a sample of more than 12,000 hemodialysis patients to evaluate the association of various patient descriptors, treatment time (hours/treatment), and various laboratory tests with the probability of death. Advancing age, white race, and diabetes were all associated with a significantly increased risk of death. Short dialysis times were also associated with high death risk before adjustment for the value of laboratory tests. Of the laboratory variables, low serum albumin less than 40 g/L (less than 4.0 g/dL) was most highly associated with death probability. About two thirds of patients had low albumin. These findings suggest that inadequate nutrition may be an important contributing factor to the mortality suffered by hemodialysis patients. The relative risk profiles for other laboratory tests are presented. Among these, low serum creatinine, not high, was associated with high death risk. Both serum albumin concentration and creatinine were directly correlated with treatment time so that high values for both substances were associated with long treatment times. The data suggest that physicians may select patients with high creatinine for more intense dialysis exposure and patients with low creatinine for less intense treatment. In a separate analysis, observed death rates were compared with rates expected on the basis of case mix for these 237 facilities. The data suggest substantial volatility of observed/expected ratios when facility size is small. Nonetheless, a minority of facilities (less than or equal to 2%) may have higher rates than expected when compared with the pool of all patients in this sample. The effect of various laboratory variables on mortality is substantial, while relatively few facilities have observed death rates that exceed their expected values. Therefore, we suggest that strategies designed to improve the overall mortality statistic for dialysis patients in the United States would be better directed toward improving the quality of care for all patients, particularly high-risk patients, within their usual treatment settings rather than trying to identify facilities with high death rate for possible regulatory intervention.

We administered recombinant human erythropoietin to 25 anemic patients with end-stage renal disease who were undergoing hemodialysis. The recombinant human erythropoietin was given intravenously three times weekly after dialysis, and transfusion requirements, hematocrit, ferrokinetics, and reticulocyte responses were monitored. Over a range of doses between 15 and 500 units per kilogram of body weight, dose-dependent increases in effective erythropoiesis were noted. At 500 units per kilogram, changes in the hematocrit of as much as 10 percentage points were seen within three weeks, and increases in ferrokinetics of three to four times basal values, as measured by erythron transferrin uptake, were observed. Of 18 patients receiving effective doses of recombinant human erythropoietin, 12 who had required transfusions no longer needed them, and in 11 the hematocrit increased to 35 percent or more. Along with the rise in hematocrit, four patients had an increase in blood pressure, and a majority had increases in serum creatinine and potassium levels. No organ dysfunction or other toxic effects were observed, and no antibodies to the recombinant hormone were formed. These results demonstrate that recombinant human erythropoietin is effective, can eliminate the need for transfusions with their risks of immunologic sensitization, infection, and iron overload, and can restore the hematocrit to normal in many patients with the anemia of end-stage renal disease.