Systemic inflammation modulates the ability of serum ferritin to predict all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in peritoneal dialysis patients.

Background: This study aimed to ascertain whether the correlation of high serum ferritin with mortality is affected by systemic inflammation and to investigate the optimal serum ferritin level for predicting death when inflammation is considered in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients.

Methods: We classified 221 patients into four groups according to serum ferritin concentration (100 μg/L) and high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) level (3 mg/L), and followed them regularly from the date of catheterization to Dec 31, 2016, at Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, China. Clinical and biochemical data were collected at baseline, and clinical outcomes such as all-cause and cardiovascular mortality were assessed.

Results: During a median follow-up of 35 months (3 ~ 109 months), 50 (22.6%) deaths occurred. Cardiovascular disease (46.0%) was the most common cause of death, followed by infection (10.0%). The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank test revealed significantly worse survival accumulation among PD patients with higher serum ferritin (≥100 μg/L) under elevated hsCRP levels (> 3 mg/L) (P = 0.022). A multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that an increased serum ferritin level was independently associated with a higher risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in PD patients (HR = 3.114, P = 0.021; and HR = 9.382, P = 0.032) with hsCRP above 3 mg/L after adjusting for relevant confounding factors.

Conclusion: Higher serum ferritin levels were associated with an increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients undergoing PD only in the presence of elevated hsCRP levels. The correlation of serum ferritin with poor outcome should take into consideration systemic inflammation.