Hypertension control among euvolemic hypertensive hemodialysis patients in Malaysia: a prospective follow-up study

Existing literature does not provide enough information on evaluation of factors associated with pre-dialysis controlled hypertension among euvolemic hemodialysis (HD) patients. We conducted a study to evaluate the rate and factors influencing pre-dialysis controlled hypertension among euvolemic HD patients. A multicenter prospective follow-up study. Tertiary care teaching hospital and its associated private dialysis centers. This study included 145 euvolemic eligible hypertensive patients. Various sociodemographic, clinical factors and drugs were investigated and analyzed by using appropriate statistical methods to determine the factors influencing hypertension control among the study participants. On baseline visit, the mean pre-dialysis systolic and diastolic BP (mmHg) of study participants was 161.2 ± 24. and 79.21 ± 11.8 retrospectively, and 30 (20.6%) patients were on pre-dialysis goal BP. At the end of the 6-months follow-up, the mean pre-dialysis systolic BP and diastolic BP (mmHg) of the patients was 154.6 ± 18.3 and 79.2 ± 11.8 respectively, and 42 (28.9%) were on pre-dialysis goal BP. In multivariate analysis, the use of calcium channel blockers (CCBs) was the only variable which had statistically significant association with pre-dialysis controlled hypertension at baseline (OR = 7.530, p -value = 0.001) and final (OR = 8.988, p -value < 0.001) visits. In present study , the positive association observed between CCBs and controlled hypertension suggests that CCBs are effective antihypertensive drugs in the management of hypertension among euvolemic HD patients. This study involved a group of patients from tertiary-level teaching hospital and its associated private dialysis centers of Malaysia. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to assess the factors influencing pre-dialysis controlled hypertension in a cohort of 145 euvolemic HD patients in a Malaysian setting. For determining the factors influencing hypertenion control multivariate analysis was conducted. Being a prospective follow-up study, the findings of the present study need to be interpreted with caution since it is limited to only 6 months follow up. Nevertheless, a multicenter study with a large sample size and longer follow up time is needed to confirm the findings of the current study.