Oral mucosal lesions and risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in people treated with long-term haemodialysis: The ORAL-D multinational cohort study

PLoS One. 2019 Jun 21;14(6):e0218684. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218684. eCollection 2019.

Abstract

Background: Chronic kidney disease is a risk factor for oral diseases, which may be associated with premature death. We evaluated the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality associated with oral mucosal lesions in adults with kidney failure treated with long-term haemodialysis.

Methods: Oral mucosal lesions (herpes, ulceration, neoformation, white lesion, red lesion, oral candidiasis, geographical tongue, petechial lesions, and fissured tongue) were evaluated within the Oral Diseases in Haemodialysis (ORAL-D) study, a multinational cohort study of 4726 haemodialysis adults. We conducted cox regression analyses adjusted for demographic and clinical variables to evaluate the association with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.

Results: Overall, 4205 adults (mean age 61.6 ± 15.6 years) underwent oral mucosal examination with 40% affected by at least one lesion. The prevalence of oral lesions was (in order of frequency): oral herpes 0.5%, mucosal ulceration 1.7%, neoformation 2.0%, white lesion 3.5%, red lesion 4.0%, oral candidiasis 4.6%, geographical tongue 4.9%, petechial lesions 7.9%, and fissured tongue 10.7%. During median follow-up of 3.5 years, 2114 patients died (1013 due to cardiovascular disease). No association was observed between any individual oral lesion and all-cause or cardiovascular mortality when adjusted for comorbidities, except for oral candidiasis, which was associated with all-cause mortality (adjusted hazard ratio 1.37, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.86) and cardiovascular mortality (adjusted hazard ratio 1.64, 95% CI 1.09 to 2.46).

Conclusion: Oral mucosal lesions are prevalent in haemodialysis patients. Oral candidiasis appears to be a risk factor for death due to cardiovascular diseases.

Publication types

  • Multicenter Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / epidemiology
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / etiology*
  • Cardiovascular Diseases / mortality*
  • Cause of Death
  • Cohort Studies
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Internationality
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Mouth Diseases / complications
  • Mouth Diseases / epidemiology*
  • Mouth Diseases / mortality
  • Prevalence
  • Renal Dialysis* / adverse effects
  • Renal Dialysis* / mortality
  • Renal Dialysis* / statistics & numerical data
  • Renal Insufficiency, Chronic / complications
  • Renal Insufficiency, Chronic / epidemiology
  • Renal Insufficiency, Chronic / mortality*
  • Renal Insufficiency, Chronic / therapy
  • Risk Factors
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

MR, PN, VS, EC, RG, MRL, MT, PS, AB-S, JD, LF, JNF, DC, SS, AGB, JH, CW, LG are employees of Diaverum. Diaverum Renal Services provided support in the form of salaries for authors MR, PN, VS, EC, RG, MRL, MT, PS, AB-S, JD, LF, JNF, DC, SS, AGB, JH, CW, LG, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. Diaverum Renal Services provided funding to assist with the cost of oral examination visits in countries where these required specific funding. Funding from Diaverum Renal Services was also applied to cover overhead costs for study coordinators in each contributing country, material printing and distribution and procurement of standardized examination kits for all patient assessments.