What’s the Optimal Lipids Level for Dialysis Patients? A Cohort Study from a Chinese Dialysis Center in a University Hospital

BACKGROUND: With lipid level being a major contributing factor for cardiovascular health, the high cardiovascular mortality among dialysis patients has raised substantial concerns in regard to the optimal lipid level in these patient population. OBJECTIVE: To explore the optimal lipid level for the survival of dialysis patients. METHODS: The lipid profile was measured for each patient. All participants were followed throughout the course of the study. Cox proportional hazards analysis was performed to analyze the prognostic value of lipid level on the survival of these patients. RESULTS: In our study that included 311 stable maintenance dialysis patients, 54.98% of the participants had LDL-C level ≥100 mg/dl and 82.91% of the patients with triglycerides ≥200 mg/dl had non-HDL level ≥130 mg/dl. During the follow-up period of 48.0 (18.0, 55.5) months, 149 (47.91%) participants died. Among those who died, 59 patients died of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 33 patients died of ischemic CVD (12.0, 4.7, and 2.7 events per 100 patient-years, respectively). Patients with LDL-C 100–130 mg/dl or non-HDL 130–160 mg/dl had a lower all-cause mortality rate than those who did not meet these criteria. After adjusting for the traditional and ESRD-related risk factors, non-HDL was found to be the independent risk factor for the all-cause mortality. Compared to those patients with non-HDL 130–160 mg/dl, patients with non-HDL <100 mg/dl, 100–130 mg/dl, 160–190 mg/dl, or ≥190 mg/dl all had higher all-cause mortality: HR (95% CI) 3.207 (1.801, 5.713), 2.493 (1.485, 4.184), 2.476 (1.423, 4.307), and 1.917 (1.099, 3.345), respectively. There were no differences in nutrition, comorbidity, and inflammation indices among the patients with different non-HDL groups. However, patients with non-HDL of 130–160 mg/dl had the lowest corrected calcium and calcium phosphate product values as compared with other non-HDL groups. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that non-HDL 130–160 mg/dl might be the most appropriate lipid level in our dialysis patients. Our follow-up data also showed that patients with higher lipid level had poorer prognosis, just as in the general population.