Korean J Med.  2001 Jun;60(6):567-573.

The changes in cardiac dimensions and function in patients with end stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis

• Lee DW
• Kim YB
• An SJ
• Jung YS
• Kwak IS
• Shin YW
• Rha HY

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is absolutely necessary to evaluate cardiac function at starting and during hemodialysis in patients with end stage renal disease. In this study, we tried to determinate the changes of cardiac function associated with hemodialysis.
METHODS
Twenty patients with end stage renal disease were enrolled , who had been in hemodialysis program from February, 1997 to August, 1999 in Pusan National University Hospital. They were examined with echocardiography and gated blood pool scintigraphy at starting hemodialysis and after follow-up. The data were analyzed by paired T-test.
RESULTS
The patients were 46.2+/-16.8 years old and male to female ratio was 8 : 12. The underlying diseases were diabetes mellitus(n=10), hypertension(7), glomerulonephritis (2) and others(1). The duration of symptoms associated with end stage renal dis- ease and underlying diseases was 3.4+/-2.6 years, and the duration of hemodialysis was 13.8+/-7.0 months. The LVEDID, LVESID and RVC decreased significantly (-6.10, -7.80 and -20.00%, respectively, p<0.05) with no significant changes for LAD, IVS, PWT and EF (p>0.05). In ten cases associated with diabetes, LVEDID decreased (-7.90%, p<0.05). In twelve cases associated with cardiac diseases, LVEDID and LVESID decreased (-8.60 and -10.50%, respectively, p<0.05). In four cases associated with diabetes without cardiac diseases, LAD decreased (-5.10%, p<0.05). And in four cases associated with cardiac diseases without diabetes, there were no significant changes in cardiac dimensions and EF. In seven cases associated with diabetes and cardiac diseases, LVEDID decreased (-10.50%, p<0.05). The EF on gated blood pool scintigraphy decreased (-0.9%, p<0.05) as a whole, while increased (5.90%, p<0.05) in the cases associated with diabetes and cardiac diseases.
CONCLUSION
During the early hemodialysis stage of end stage renal disease, we found a change of concentric left ventricular hypertrophy and relatively preserved left ventricular function. Furthermore we can expect that adequate hemodialysis -with dry-weight as low as possible - may prevent progression to eccentric left ventricular hypertrophy and dilated cadiomyopathy.

Keyword

End stage renal disease; Hemodialysis; Echocardiography; Cardiac function

MeSH Terms

Busan
Echocardiography
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Gated Blood-Pool Imaging
Glomerulonephritis
Heart Diseases
Humans
Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular
Kidney Failure, Chronic*
Male
Renal Dialysis*
Ventricular Function, Left