27/04/2009
A study of IBIM-CNR just published in JACC shows that there is a direct correlation between mortality incidence of dialysis patients and the increasing of abdominal fat. The study will open new outlooks for the prognosis of renal diseasesObesity, it is well known, is associated to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and therefore of death. This statement, seems to be not valid for dialysis patients. People affected by end-stage renal disease, and therefore obliged to this treatment, show to survive better the disease if they are overweight. A medical paradox that is now explained by an epidemiological study just published in JACC (Journal of the American College of cardiology). The study has been realized by the Research Unit of Reggio Calabria of the Institute of Biomedicine and Molecular Immunology (IBIM) of Italy's Research Council.
The research, coordinated by Maurizio Postorino, of Nephrology and Transplantation Unit of Reggio Calabria Ospedali Riuniti, has involved more than 500 patients and 24 centres of the Calabria Registry of Dialysis and Transplantation and it promises to cast light on a complex phenomenon. "The aim of our study", says Carmine Zoccali, senior author of the study and head of Reggio Calabria research Unit of Ibim-Cnr "was to investigate the paradox of the cardiovascular risk for dialysis patients. First of all we have confirmed that a high body mass index, the parameter that is usually used to define overweight and obesity and that is normally associated to cardiovascular pathologies, exceptionally for dialysis patients does not represent a risk factor. It is on the contrary a protective factor". A full-blown riddle that the authors of the study have solved taking in consideration for the first time another parameter, the waist circumference. "We have found out that the real risk factor for these patients", adds the Cnr researcher "is represented by the waist circumference, that is to say, the fat accumulated in abdominal viscera. To give an idea, a 10 centimeters larger waist circumference means that the risk of death for cardiovascular causes increases of 38%". Worldwide more than 1 million patients are on dialysis and in the USA (about 350.000 patients on dialysis) nearly 1/3 dialysis patients are obese. This study could represent for clinical research new outlooks of prognosis and treatment.
Rome, 27 April 2009
In summary:
Who: Research Unit Of Reggio Calabria of the Institute of Biomedicine and Molecular Immunology of Italy's Research Council.
What: epidemiological study on dialysis patients Contacts: Carmine Zoccali, Ibim-Cnr Reggio Calabria- tel.+39 0965/397010, +39 0965/397002, e-mail: carmine.zoccali@tin.it
Abstract: content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/full/53/15/1265