Atrial fibrillation (AF) can develop in patients with chronic kidney disease. However, the impact of new-onset AF in patients who are initiated on hemodialysis remains unclear. We categorized 254 patients who were started on hemodialysis into three groups: those with pre-existing AF, those with new-onset AF, and those without AF. Statistical analyses were performed to evaluate the associations between patient characteristics and survival outcomes. AF was observed in 42 patients (16.5%), of whom 19 (7.5%) had pre-existing AF and 23 (9.1%) developed new-onset AF at the initiation of hemodialysis. Multivariate logistic regression models showed that only low serum albumin levels were associated with AF (P = 0.04). Age- and other factors-adjusted multivariable Cox regression models indicated that AF, particularly pre-existing AF, was an independent risk factor for death after dialysis initiation (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.28, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.39-3.74, P = 0.001; HR: 3.05, 95% CI: 1.64-5.66, P = 0.004, respectively). However, new-onset AF was not significantly associated with mortality (HR: 1.43, 95% CI: 0.74-2.78, P = 0.28). These findings suggest that pre-existing AF before hemodialysis initiation has a crucial impact on patient prognosis.
Copyright: © 2025 Tsuyuki et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.