An infection-related hospitalization increases the risk of a cardiovascular event in elderly patients on dialysis, according to a research group from the US.

Infection and cardiovascular disease are both major causes of hospitalization and death in patients on dialysis. Studies have indicated that these two factors might be interrelated in the general population, with infection increasing the risk of a cardiovascular event. These findings led Lorien Dalrymple and colleagues to examine the relationship between infection-related hospitalizations and cardiovascular events in the 90-day period following an infection.

The researchers used the United States Renal Data System database to examine hospitalization data from 16,874 patients aged 65–100 years who were on dialysis and had experienced at least one cardiovascular event. A self-controlled case-series design was used to control for confounding factors, a method where each individual serves as their own control.

Dalrymple and colleagues found that infection increased the risk of a cardiovascular event by 25% in the first 30 days after an infection, and by 18% in the 90-day period after an infection. The authors suggest that this increased risk could be attributable to an infection resulting in inflammation that promotes the pathogenesis of vascular disease. The type of infection—blood, genitourinary or pulmonary infection—did not affect the risk.

The authors are planning to expand on their work by examining the effects of infection on cardiovascular events in the general dialysis population to determine whether their observations are present in all age groups. “If convincing evidence continues to emerge that infections increase the short-term risk of a cardiovascular event, then this may become an important time frame for cardiovascular risk reduction and monitoring,” concludes Dalrymple.