Background: Although left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) has been established as a predictor of cardiovascular events in chronic kidney disease (CKD), the relationship between the prevalence of LVH and CKD stage during the predialysis period has not been fully examined.
Methods: We measured left ventricular mass index (LVMI) in a cross-sectional cohort of participants in the Chronic Kidney Disease Japan Cohort (CKD-JAC) study in order to identify factors that are associated with increased LVMI in patients with stage 3-5 CKD. LVH was defined as LVMI>125 g/m2 in male patients and >110 g/m2 in female patients.
Results: We analyzed baseline characteristics in 1185 participants (male 63.7%, female 36.3%). Diabetes mellitus was the underlying disease in 41.3% of patients, and mean age was 61.8±11.1 years. LVH was detected in 21.7% of patients at baseline. By multivariate logistic analysis, independent risk factors for LVH were past history of cardiovascular disease (odds ratio [OR] 0.574; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.360-0.916; P=0.020), systolic blood pressure (OR 1.179; 95% CI 1.021-1.360; P=0.025), body mass index (OR 1.135; 95% CI 1.074-1.200; P<0.001), and serum calcium level (OR 0.589; 95% CI 0.396-0.876; P=0.009).
Conclusion: Cross-sectional baseline data from the CKD-JAC study shed light on the association between LVH and risk factors in patients with decreased renal function. Further longitudinal analyses of the CKD-JAC cohort are needed to evaluate the prognostic value of LVH in CKD patients.