Prevalence of pericardial effusion in patients on maintenance hem dialysis in the Iraqi dialysis center

Abstract EN

Background: Patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) on regular hemodialysis (HD) are presented in significant percentage with pericardial effusion that was associated with significant morbidity and little mortality.

Aim: This study concern to estimate the prevalence of uremic pericardial effusion (UPE) amoung patients on regular hemodialysis and its possible associated factors.

Patients and Methods :In this cross section study, the data was conducted at the Iraqi Dialysis Center of Baghdad Teaching Hospital in Medical City, mainly assessed by echocardiography to 100 patients on regular hemodialysis included in this study attending our hospital for hemodialysis as part of thier long term treatment.

Results: The prevalence of UPE was 23% among HD patients and the result was significant with P<0.001, mainly associated with aging, those with hypertention (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM) ,ischaemic heart disease (IHD) , hypoalbuminaemia, anaemia and inadequate HD , but the prevalence interstingly was low in patients with heptitis C virus infection.

Conclusion: the prevalence of UPE was higher than previous study that show dialysis-associated pericardial effusion account to 8-12% of patients on hemodialysis.