Cardiovascular manifestations in chronic renal failure patients on hemodialysis

OBJECTIVE: To study the characteristics of hemodialized patients included in the study and demonstrate patterns of cardiovascular manifestations in patients as well as the impact of duration of dialysis on these manifestations.

METHODS: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out on patients undergoing regular hemodialysis in the Dialysis Unit, Al-Thawra General Hospital, Sana'a, Yemen, between September 2000 and December 2000.

RESULTS: This study was carried out on 50 patients who were on regular hemodialysis; the male to female ratio was 1.3:1 with a mean age of 39.8 +/- 12.6 years and mean dialysis duration of 61.3 +/- 7.57 months. The study revealed the following 78% of patients have hypertension with mean systolic blood pressure (BP) of 151 +/- 32 mm Hg and mean diastolic BP of 94 +/- 19 mm Hg, valvular dysfunctions were found in 70%, heart failure in 50%, ischemic changes in 34% and finally 26% of patients have pericardial effusion whereas only one patient (2%) has pericardial rub.

CONCLUSION: We conclude that cardiovascular manifestations in Al-Thawra General Hospital were found higher than what has been found in other centers worldwide. We recommend to reevaluate the practice in this department particularly the efficiency of dialysis and follow up of the patients. Statistically there was no significant correlation between the duration of dialysis and cardiovascular manifestations.