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Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated from its initial stages with cardiovascular disease (CVD); both pathologies share risk factors and progression mechanisms. The presence of one seems to accelerate the presentation and progression of the other, which has led to the proposal that the kidney plays a fundamental role in vascular pathology and constitutes an important risk factor for total and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
The main objective of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of cardiovascular alterations in patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD), in addition to identifying traditional and non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors; and its association with CVD in HD patients.
This is an unpublished work, since, in Bolivia, there is no statistical data on the prevalence of CVD in patients with CKD on HD. Therefore, the findings mark a starting point for carrying out work on a larger scale and serve as an initial reference for carrying out future research projects.
A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out. 60 adult patients of both sexes with CKD of any etiology were included, in a conventional hemodialysis program, at the Red Crescent Hemodialysis Center of Iran in the department of Cochabamba, in August 2023. The patients signed an informed consent, to participating in the study, baseline characteristics and clinical data are presented in Table 1.
The mean age was 58.02 years (SD ±14.48), the male sex predominated with 53%. The frequency of cardiovascular risk factors has been in the following order: Arterial Hypertension 72%, Diabetes Mellitus 55% and Dyslipidemia 45%.
Peripheral vascular disease (PVD) has been present in 62% of patients, 67% have valvular calcifications and 80% have LV hypertrophy. Regarding patients with PVD, 51% were male.
The presence of diastolic dysfunction was high at 95%; and only 37% presented systolic dysfunction
Of the patients diagnosed with PVD, 14% had altered phosphocalcium metabolism, 19% had dyslipidemia, and 30% had diabetes mellitus.
In conclusion, the most frequent cardiovascular alterations in the studied population were: left ventricular hypertrophy, valvular calcifications and established peripheral vascular disease, which was diagnosed in more than half of the patients studied, which was not previously diagnosed and was not had the respective treatment established.
In summary, in this study group, the predominant cardiovascular risk factor in patients was HTN, followed by Diabetes and Dyslipidemia.
Ultimately, in the group of patients studied, the alteration of phosphocalcium metabolism did not represent a risk factor on its own for the presence of cardiovascular disease, therefore, the treatment approach should be aimed at controlling the different associated pathologies in the patients. with CKD.
Currently in our country, there is no statistical prevalence data regarding CVD, in this sense, we believe that this research work is of great contribution to the future implementation of larger scale studies that allow diagnosis and treatment. timely treatment of complications associated with CVD.