Gender-Dependent Impact of Risk Factors for Cardiovascular and Non-Cardiovascular Mortality in End-Stage Renal Disease Patients on Haemodialysis

We investigated whether mortality risk factors are gender dependent in haemodialysis patients. Patients (n = 230; 118 women, 112 men) on haemodialysis were followed for 52 months to assess the incidence of death due to cardiovascular or non-cardiovascular causes. Survival was compared by Cox regression analysis using age, diabetes, pre-existing coronary disease, troponin T and C-reactive protein as covariates. In total, 120 participants (52.2%) died within the 52 months of follow-up: 57 patients died of cardiovascular disease, 35 patients died of infectious diseases. Cox regression revealed that age, pre-existing coronary heart disease and troponin T were independent all-cause mortality risk factors for both sexes. Analyzing men and women separately revealed that diabetes and C-reactive protein seemed to be a stronger risk factors for all-cause mortality in women. Cardiovascular mortality was predicted by troponin T in women (relative risk = 5.16, 95% CI: 1.67-15.88; p = 0.004), but not in men (relative risk = 1.69; 95% CI: 0.72-3.96; p = 0.23). Our study showed for the first time that the impact of risk factors in predicting death due to cardiovascular disease is clearly gender dependent.