Peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients treated with ACE inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) have a lower mortality risk than PD patients not treated with these medications, researchers reported in Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation (online ahead of print).
The study, conducted at the University of Toronto, had 306 PD patients, of whom 165 were treated with ACE inhibitors or ARBs (treated group) and 141 were not (untreated group). Investigators followed patients from the date of PD initiation until death, cessation of PD, transfer to other centers, or the end of the study on December 31, 2006. The treated group had a 62% reduced death risk after adjusting for age, BP, and other variables. The treated group was younger than the untreated patients (56.9 vs. 62.3 years) and more likely to have a history of hypertension.