Prevalence of peripheral vascular calcifications in patients on chronic hemodialysis at a tertiary care center in Beirut: a pilot study.

Background: Vascular calcifications are highly prevalent in patients maintained on chronic hemodialysis. They have been linked to numerous risk factors and have been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this pilot study is to assess the prevalence of vascular calcifications among dialysis patients in our tertiary care center and to identify the associated risk factors.

Methods: In the current study, we reviewed the charts of 43 patients undergoing hemodialysis at our center. We estimated the prevalence of vascular calcifications among dialysis patients using plain X-ray of the hand as the screening tool. We compared patient's characteristics and tried to identify possible risk factors, with a special emphasis on the subgroup of patients with diabetes.

Results: Vascular calcifications were prevalent among half of the patients on hemodialysis. Duration of dialysis (p = 0.02), diabetes (p < 0.001), and hypertension (p = 0.01) were highly associated with vascular calcifications. No association was found between vascular calcifications and age, gender, calcium-based phosphate binders, vitamin D supplementation, smoking, and lipid control. In multivariate analyses, diabetes and duration of dialysis were the only independent predictors of vascular calcifications and diabetics developed vascular calcifications earlier than nondiabetics (31 months vs 69 months).

Conclusion: Vascular calcifications are moderately prevalent among patients undergoing hemodialysis at our center, and were found to be strongly correlated with diabetes and duration of dialysis. A larger, multicenter, prospective study should be conducted at national level, in order to confirm the findings of this study and to identify further modifiable risk factors, to decrease the incidence of vascular calcifications and the incurring cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in our population.