Effect of early initiation of dialysis on cardiac structure and function: results from the echo sub-study of the IDEAL Trial

Abstract

Abnormalities of cardiac structure and function are common in dialysis patients and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of mortality in this group. Heart failure is a common clinical manifestation of CVD and is preceded by left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and There are variable reports about the impact of dialysis on LVH, both deleterious and beneficial. Our study investigated whether the timing of the initiation of dialysis impacted upon cardiac structure and function.