Prevalence and clinical outcomes of triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy among haemodialysis patients

Objective: To evaluate the effect of triglyceride deposit cardiomyovasculopathy (TGCV) on the cardiovascular outcomes in haemodialysis (HD) patients with suspected coronary artery disease (CAD).

Methods: This retrospective single-centre observational study included data from the cardiac catheter database of Narita Memorial Hospital between April 2011 and March 2017. Among 654 consecutive patients on HD, the data for 83 patients with suspected CAD who underwent both [¹²³I]-β-methyl-iodophenyl-pentadecanoic acid scintigraphy and coronary angiography were analysed. Patients were divided into three groups: definite TGCV (17 patients), probable TGCV (22 patients) and non-TGCV control group (44 patients). The primary endpoint was a composite of cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction and non-fatal stroke assessed for up to 5 years of follow-up.

Results: The prevalence of definite TGCV was approximately 20% and 2.6% among consecutive HD patients with suspected CAD and among all HD patients, respectively. At the end of the median follow-up period of 4.7 years, the primary endpoint was achieved in 52.9% of the definite TGCV patients (HR, 7.45; 95% CI: 2.28 to 24.3; p<0.001) and 27.3% of the probable TGCV patients (HR, 3.28; 95% CI: 0.93 to 11.6; p=0.066), compared with that in 9.1% of the non-TGCV control patients. Definite TGCV was significantly and independently associated with cardiovascular mortality and outcomes among HD patients in all multivariate models.

Conclusions: TGCV is not uncommon in HD patients and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events including cardiovascular death. Thus, TGCV might be a potential therapeutic target.

Keywords: coronary artery disease; metabolic heart disease; nuclear cardiac imaging.