Increased risk of cardiovascular events in end-stage renal disease patients with osteoporosis: a nationwide population-based cohort study

Summary We investigated the cardiovascular disease risk and mortality in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. A total of 12,535 patients with ESRD undergoing incident dialysis were enrolled, 4,153 (33.13 %) of whom had osteoporosis. The osteoporosis group was associated with a significantly higher risk of coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, stroke, and mortality. Introduction In this study, we aimed to investigate the risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality in a sample of end-stage renal disease patients with osteoporosis. Methods We conducted this retrospective cohort study of incident dialysis patients with and without osteoporosis to evaluate the risk of overall mortality and cardiovascular complications including stroke, coronary heart disease, and congestive heart failure between the two groups. A total of 12,535 patients with ESRD undergoing incident dialysis were enrolled, 4,153 (33.13 %) of whom had osteoporosis, from the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan for the years 1998 through 2011. The osteoporosis group had more comorbidities than the group without osteoporosis including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, mental disorders, and hepatitis C infection. Results After adjusting for age, gender, and related comorbidities, the osteoporosis group was associated with a significantly higher risk of coronary artery disease (hazard ratio (HR) = 1.32, 95 % confidence interval (CI) = 1.20–1.45) which was significant in both genders (women, HR = 1.35, 95 % CI = 1.20–1.50; men HR = 1.27, 95 % CI = 1.06–1.52) and all age groups (≤49 years HR = 1.41, 95 % CI = 1.16–1.70; >49 years HR = 1.30, 95 % CI = 1.16–1.45). Similar results were observed for the outcomes of congestive heart failure, stroke, and mortality. Conclusions The results showed that osteoporosis was significantly associated with the subsequent risk of cardiovascular events in patients with ESRD. When encountering patients with ESRD and osteoporosis, physicians should be alert to the subsequent cardiovascular risk in incident dialysis patients to prevent the subsequent occurrence of these adverse events.