Association of Proteinuria with Central Venous Catheter Use at Initial Hemodialysis.

Context: Central venous catheter (CVC) use is associated with increased mortality and complications in hemodialysis recipients. Although prevalent CVC use has decreased, incident use remains high.

Objective: To examine characteristics associated with CVC use at initial dialysis, specifically looking at proteinuria as a predictor of interest.

Design: Retrospective cohort of 918 hemodialysis recipients from Kaiser Permanente Northwest who started hemodialysis from January 1, 2004, to January 1, 2014.

Main Outcome Measures: Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine an association of proteinuria with the primary outcome of CVC use.

Results: More than one-third (36%) of patients in our cohort started hemodialysis with an arteriovenous fistula, and 64% started with a CVC. Proteinuria was associated with starting hemodialysis with a CVC (likelihood ratio test, p < 0.001) after adjustment for age, peripheral vascular disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, sex, race, and length of predialysis care. However, on pairwise comparison, only patients with midgrade proteinuria (0.5-3.5 g) had lower odds of starting hemodialysis with a CVC (odds ratio = 0.39, 95% confidence interval = 0.24-0.65).

Conclusion: Proteinuria was associated with use of CVC at initial hemodialysis. However, a graded association did not exist, and only patients with midgrade proteinuria had significantly lower odds of CVC use. Our findings suggest that proteinuria is an explanatory finding for CVC use but may not have pragmatic value for decision making. Patients with lower levels of proteinuria may have a higher risk of starting dialysis with a CVC.