Evolution of hemodialysis access resistance: a longitudinal 5-year model using functional principal components analysis.

Purpose: Arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) and grafts (AVG) are the preferred accesses in hemodialysis (HD). By monitoring access resistance (AR) one can potentially identify problems with an established HD access, but little is known about how these changes in AR occur, or the variations between the two access types as they mature longitudinally. We postulated that AR evolves differentially between AVF and AVG, a critical aspect to further understanding of the natural history of HD accesses.