Researchers at Mayo Clinic searching for explanations of high mortality rates among kidney failure patients undergoing hemodialysis are focusing their attention on the use of Heparin, a drug used to reduce clotting of the blood.

In the study, they found patients who had a higher level of adverse outcomes also had elevated levels of Heparin antibodies in their blood. The authors believe this is the first study examining this association.

However, Robert McBane, a Mayo Clinic cardiovascular disease specialist who led the study, cautions that these results are preliminary.

" These results are thought-provoking and hypothesis-generating, but at this point we need more study," says McBane. " Patients requiring hemodialysis have a high mortality rate for reasons which are not clear. The search for variables contributing to this mortality rate is of prime importance."

Heparin is an anticoagulant, which is usually used to prevent the formation of blood clots in the blood vessels that can prove harmful.

For patients with end-stage renal disease, hemodialysis is the most common form of therapy.
Recent figures show more than 85 percent of the approximately 379,000 patients with the disease were treated this way.

Heparin must be used to prevent clotting of the blood in the dialysis machine in order to safely perform hemodialysis.
At this time, there are no other widely-used alternatives to Heparin. The results of this analysis, if confirmed by others, might stimulate the search for better anticoagulants that can be used in hemodialysis.

The study found that the presence of heparin antibodies in hemodialysis patients was associated with more adverse outcomes heparin antibodies in hemodialysis patients was associated with more adverse outcomes compared with hemodialysis patients without detectable antibodies.

Source: Mayo Clinic, 2005


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