Background and objective: The influence of glycemic control on cardiovascular (CV) complications or survival is not clear in diabetic patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Although glycohemoglobin (HbA1c) is widely used as a marker of hyperglycemia in these patients, it may be unreliable because of shortened erythrocyte lifespan. Glycated albumin (GA) is an alternative marker. We investigated the relation between these markers and development of CV complications or survival in diabetic ESRD patients.
Patients and methods: We obtained three variables as markers of glycemic control: 1) mean HbA1c levels during 1-year after initiation of dialysis (HbA1c1), 2) mean HbA1c levels during 3 months from August to October 2002 (HbA1c2), 3) GA on October 2002 (GA2) from 78 type 2 diabetic patients on chronic hemodialysis. We examined the influence of these variables on survival or development of CV diseases using the multivariate Cox proportional-hazards models until September 2006.
Results: The 3-year survival rate was 73%. A total of 27 patients died, 15 from CV diseases. A total of 23 CV diseases developed in 20 patients. Neither HbA1c1 nor HbA1c2 was associated with all-cause mortality, CV mortality or development of CV diseases. GA2 was also not associated with mortality. However, the higher GA2 group (GA > or = 23.0%) had a significantly higher rate of development of CV diseases than the lower GA2 group (GA < 23.0%) (log-rank test p=0.03). The higher GA2 group was significantly associated with development of CV diseases relative to the lower GA2 group (hazard ratio 3.25, p=0.04).
Conclusion: Neither HbA1c levels nor GA levels, at initiation of dialysis or on chronic dialysis, predicted mortality in diabetic ESRD patients. However, poor glycemic control as reflected by higher GA levels may be associated with the development of CV diseases. More studies are needed to clarify the beneficial effect of glycemic control in these patients.