IMR Press / RCM / Volume 22 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2204163
Open Access Original Research
Altered circulating marinobufagenin levels and recurrent intradialytic hypotensive episodes in chronic hemodialysis patients: a pilot, prospective study
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1 Nephrology and Dialysis Unit, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
2 Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
3 Clinical pathology lab, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
4 Department of Health Sciences, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
5 Cardiovascular Research Center, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
6 Mediterranea Cardiocentro, 80100 Napoli, Italy
7 Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, 88100 Catanzaro, Italy
*Correspondence: davide.bolignano@gmail.com (Davide Bolignano)
Academic Editor: Peter A. McCullough
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2021, 22(4), 1577–1587; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2204163
Submitted: 12 July 2021 | Revised: 21 August 2021 | Accepted: 10 September 2021 | Published: 22 December 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Featured Papers in Cardiovascular Medicine 2021)
Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Abstract

Intradialytic hypotension (IDH) is a sudden and often serious complication of chronic hemodialysis (HD). In this prospective study, we aimed at evaluating the clinical predictors of IDH in a homogeneous cohort of chronic HD patients, with a particular focus on marinobufagenin (MBG), an endogenous cardiotonic steroid which alterations have previously been involved in various cardiovascular disorders. MBG levels in HD patients were significantly higher than in controls (p = 0.03), remained unchanged throughout a single HD session and were not correlated with the absolute or partial fluid loss achieved. During a 30-day follow-up, 19 patients (65.5%) experienced at least one IDH (73 total episodes). An inverse correlation was found between baseline MBG and the number of IDH (R = –0.55; p = 0.001). HD patients experiencing IDH presented remarkably lower baseline MBG as compared to others (p = 0.008) with a statistically significant trend during HD (p = 0.02). At Kaplan-Meier analyses, HD patients with lower MBG manifested a four-to-six fold increased risk of IDH during follow-up (crude Hazard Ratio ranging from 4.37 to 6.68). At Cox regression analyses, MBG measurement at different time points resulted the strongest time-dependent predictors of IDH among all the variables considered (HR ranging from 0.068 to 0.155; p: 0.002 to <0.0001). Findings obtained suggest that differently altered MBG in chronic HD patients may reflect a diverse vascular and hemodynamic tolerance to HD stress, eventually leading to recurrent IDH episodes. Further studies are needed to confirm the prognostic capacity of MBG for identifying HD patients at high risk of IDH, particularly those with apparently optimal fluid status.

Keywords
Marinobufagenin
Hemodialysis
Intradialytic hypotension
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