Left Ventricular Hypertrophy and Ejection Fraction in Association with C-Reactive Protein (CRP) in Regular Hemodialysis Patients

Hamid Nasri M.D. and Shahin Shirani M.D.

To study the associations of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) as a marker of inflammation, with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) as an independent risk factor for mortality in hemodialysis (HD) patients, a cross sectional study was conducted on maintenance hemodialysis patients. On the basis of septal thickness, the patients stratified into no LVH, mild, moderate and severe LVH. For patients levels of serum albumin (Alb) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured using standard kits. Thirty-six HD patients consisting of 25 non diabetic and 11 diabetic HD patients enrolled in this study. MeanąSD of age of patients were 46ą17 years. The median duration of hemodialysis were 19 months. MeanąSD of CRP of total patients were 8.7ą6.7 mg/l (median:8 mg/l). MeanąSD of LV ejection fraction of all patients were 48ą11.5 percent (median = 52%). In this study an inverse association between serum CRP and LV ejection fraction which is more significant in non diabetic dialysis patients and a positive correlation of serum CRP with stages of LVH were found. This study showed the positive association between inflammation and left ventricular hypertrophy and ejection fraction. More attention to treatment of malnutrition of hemodialysis patients to diminish the inflammatory state of hemodialysis procedure needs.