Higher Serum Ferritin Ups Mortality in Hemodialysis Patients

PHILADELPHIA—Higher serum ferritin levels are associated with all-cause, cardiovascular, and infection-related mortality among patients on hemodialysis (HD), according to a Japanese study presented at the 2014 Kidney Week meeting.

Yukio Maruyama, MD, of the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo, and colleagues analyzed baseline data from 162,818 receiving thrice-weekly HD. Patients had a median age of 65 years and a median HD vintage of 61 months. During a 1-year follow-up, 12,800 patients (7.9%) died of all causes.

The group included 5,216 (3.2%) who died from cardiovascular causes and 2,230 (1.4%) who died from infection-related causes.

In multivariable analysis, patients in the highest quartile of serum ferritin had 24%, 10%, and 24% increased odds of all-cause, cardiovascular, and infection-related mortality, respectively, compared with those in the lowest quartile.

From the December 01, 2014 Issue of Renal and Urology News