PROBABILITY OF SURVIVAL IN HYPERTENSIVE AND NON-HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS ON MAINTENANCE HEMODIALYSIS

Abstract

The actuarial survival rate for 58 unselected patients who entered a program of maintenance hemodialysis and transplantation was 43.0 .+-. 8.3 (SE) % for the 6 yr observation period. The survival rate was considerably lower in hypertensive patients as well as in patients with familial Mediterranean fever with amyloidosis, all of whom were nonhypertensive. When the patients with familial Mediterranean fever were excluded from the nonhypertensive group, the expected survival rate of this group became greater than that of the hypertensive group, the difference being about 25% in 5 yr and about 50% in 6 yr. This difference in the survival rate approached that between normotensive subjects and untreated severely hypertensive patients in the general population. Hypertension was a serious limiting factor in the survival of patients on chronic hemodialysis, and the difference in survival between the hypertensive and the non-hypertensive patients was attributable to hypertension.