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Abstract: PUB100

Prevalence and Severity of Pruritus in Patients on Maintenance Hemodialysis

Session Information

Category: Dialysis

  • 701 Dialysis: Hemodialysis and Frequent Dialysis

Authors

  • Wen, Huei Hsun, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States
  • Chauhan, Kinsuk, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States
  • Oh, Wonsuk, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States
  • Coca, Steven G., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States
  • Nadkarni, Girish N., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States
  • Chan, Lili, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States
Background

Chronic kidney disease associated pruritus (CKD-aP) is a common symptom in patients on in center-hemodialysis (HD), reported in approximately 40% of patients. Recent clinical trials have identified novel agents for treatment of CKD-aP. Understanding the prevalence of uremic pruritus and its association with other symptoms can aid in identifying patients who would most benefit from this treatment.

Methods

We surveyed patient’s ≥18 years old who had been on iHD for ≥30 days, and were receiving HD three times a week at the Mount Sinai Kidney Center. Patients completed surveys asking about the presence of absence of 21 different symptoms during the final 15 minutes of their HD treatments for 4 weeks. We performed multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) to identify associations between symptoms and group individuals with similar symptom profiles.

Results

Of the 97 HD patients who completed the study, 40 (41%) of them reported itching at least once during the study period. There were no significant differences in patient characteristics between patients who did and did not report itching (Figure 1A). Of the patients who reported itching, on average they reported itching on 30±24% of their treatments (Figure 1B). On MCA analyses, symptoms most correlated with itching was dry skin and fatigue (Figure 1C), Spearman correlation coefficient 0.63, P<0.001 for dry skin and 0.37, P<0.001 for fatigue (Figure 1D). Using symptom data only, there was no obvious patient groupings.

Conclusion

CKD-aP affects a large proportion of patients on HD, occurs repeatedly, and clusters with dry skin and fatigue.

Figure 1: A) Demographics of patients by those who did and did not have CKD-aP, B) Patient distribution of symptom frequency, where 100 indicates itch was experienced at every treatment, C) Visualization of symptoms and MCA principal dimension, symptoms that are closer indicate higher correlation, D) Correlation plot, size and color of circle indicate Spearman Correlation Coefficient.

Funding

  • NIDDK Support –