Peritoneal albumin excretion is a strong predictor of cardiovascular events in peritoneal dialysis patients: a prospective cohort study.

Background: Microalbuminuria is a marker of systemic endothelial dysfunction. We hypothesize that peritoneal albumin excretion in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients, which is conceptually analogous to microalbuminuria in non-uremic patients, can predict cardiovascular disease in new PD patients.

Method: We studied peritoneal albumin excretion in 43 new PD patients. They were then followed prospectively for the development of cardiovascular events. All-cause mortality and duration of hospitalization for cardiovascular diseases were also recorded.

Result: The average duration of follow-up was 26.5 +/- 17.6 months. During the follow-up period, 15 patients developed cardiovascular events. Event-free survival at 36 months was 81.4% and 53.6% for low (< 300 mg/L) and high (> 300 mg/L) peritoneal albumin excretion groups respectively (log rank test, p = 0.042). By Cox regression analysis, the only independent factors for event-free survival were diabetic status and peritoneal albumin excretion rate. For every 100 mg/L increase in peritoneal albumin excretion, the adjusted hazard ratio of developing a cardiovascular event was 1.83 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.11 - 3.02, p = 0.018]. Actuarial patient survival at 36 months was 85.7% and 59.1% for low and high peritoneal albumin excretion groups respectively (log rank test, p = 0.10). After adjusting for the duration of follow-up for individual patients, the average duration of hospitalization was 9.1 +/- 16.2 and 21.7 +/- 25.7 days per year of follow-up for low and high peritoneal albumin excretion groups respectively (Mann-Whitney U test, p = 0.012).

Conclusion: Although the sample size of our present study is small and does not have adequate statistical power, we conclude that peritoneal albumin excretion may be an important predictor of cardiovascular disease. Further studies are needed to examine the role of dialysate albumin excretion as a means of cardiovascular risk stratification in PD patients.