Kidney disease may boost risk of abnormal heartbeat
Staff Writer |
People with failing kidneys are at increased risk of developing a life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm, a new report suggests.
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Chronic kidney disease can as much as double a patient's risk of atrial fibrillation, a quivering or irregular heartbeat that can lead to stroke or heart failure, said lead researcher Dr. Nisha Bansal. She is an associate professor of nephrology at the University of Washington's Kidney Research Institute, in Seattle.
The risk of atrial fibrillation increases as kidney function declines, Bansal said.
"We saw the worse your kidney function, the greater your risk of developing atrial fibrillation. Even mild changes in kidney function were strongly linked to atrial fibrillation," Bansal noted.
The study included data gathered from three separate research projects focused on heart health in the United States. The three projects created a combined pool of almost 17,000 patients with follow-up periods averaging between 8.5 years and 12.5 years. None of the participants had atrial fibrillation when first recruited.
Each project checked participants' kidney function when they first joined the study, using one or two different lab tests. One was a blood test that evaluated how well the kidneys were removing toxins from the bloodstream. The other was a urine test that assessed whether the kidneys were properly filtering out a specific protein.
People with worse kidney function at the start of the study were more likely to have atrial fibrillation by the end, the researchers found. Those who did worse on the blood test were twice as likely to develop an abnormal heart rhythm, while those who did worse on the urine test were 76 percent more likely.
While the association doesn't prove a cause-and-effect relationship, the link remained even after the researchers took into account other risk factors for atrial fibrillation, such as diabetes, tobacco use and a history of heart problems.
"We found that kidney function was independent of all other risk factors," Bansal said. ■