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Journal of Clinical Medicine Research

Original Article

Volume 12, Number 3, March 2020, pages 180-183

Chronic Kidney Disease in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Device Placement: Results of a Retrospective Study

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects 30 million people or 15% of the US population [1]. Cardiovascular issues (especially arrhythmia and sudden cardiac death) are one of the most common causes of mortality in patients with CKD [2, 3]. To mitigate cardiac complications, these patients often require various cardiac devices, such as pacemakers, loop recorders and defibrillators. The placement of these devices poses multiple predicaments in renal failure patients. Many of these implantable cardiac devices have leads that can cause central venous stenosis and thrombosis which is very critical for renal patients as compared to the general population [4-8]. Because CKD is a progressive disease, these patients depend on patent central venous access for the creation of an arteriovenous (AV) fistula in the near future [4]. Loss of this venous access can be an important factor for their ultimate survival. In addition to that, abnormal renal function is an independent risk factor for cardiac implantable electronic device (CIED) infection [9-11]. In this study, we aim to determine the prevalence of CKD in patients undergoing cardiac device placement and their progression of CKD.

A total of 688 patients who underwent cardiac device placement at Jersey Shore University Medical Center over a 3-year period (June 2015 to June 2018) were included in this study. Demographic characteristics, comorbidities, base-line renal functions at the time procedure, types of cardiac device, and insertion sites were assessed retrospectively. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated by the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) creatinine equation for all of the patients to ascertain the degree of advanced CKD. Advanced CKD was defined as CKD stage greater than 3 or more. Patients were categorized into CKD stages 1 - 5 based on the National Kidney Foundation Dialysis Outcomes Quality Initiative (NKF-KDOQI) guidelines [12].

Institutional review board approval was obtained for this study. All study procedures were carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki regarding research involving human subjects. The summary statistics of continuous variables were reported as mean ± standard deviation.

A total of 688 patients underwent cardiac device placement at Jersey Shore University Medical Center over a 3-year period. Demographic characteristics revealed that the average age of the patient was 73.9 years with male predominance (60%) (Table 1). Major comorbidities included hypertension (76.2%), hyperlipidemia (66.4%), cardiovascular disease (44.4%) and congestive heart failure (44.9%) (Table 1). Most common types of device placements were new insertion or replacement of atrial and ventricular leads (39.5%), loop recorder implantation (21.1%) and generator changes on an already implanted devices (11%), and only 4% (28/688) had leadless cardiac device placement (Table 2). The most common insertion sites were subclavian (47.1%), axillary (32.3%) and femoral (12.2%). A total of 227 patients (33%) had evidence of stage 3 - 5 CKD (stage 3A GFR = 45 - 59 mL/min (n = 116); stage 3B GFR = 30 - 44 mL/min (n = 69); stage 4 GFR = 15 - 29 mL/min (n = 23); stage 5 GFR < 15 mL/min (n = 19)) at the time of cardiac device placement (Table 3).

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Table 1. Demographics of Patient Undergoing Cardiac Device Placement (n = 688)

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Table 2. Types of Cardiac Device and Sites of Access (n = 688)

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Table 3. Stages of CKD in Patients’ Who Underwent Cardiac Device Placement

This study finds that CKD stages 3 - 5 presented in nearly 33% of patients undergoing cardiac device implantation. Our results are consistent with the previous study that demonstrated a similar prevalence of CKD in patient undergoing CIED removal [13].

Recognizing the high prevalence of advanced CKD in this population is important to minimize the risk of device infection. The most common sites of insertion for the cardiac device were subclavian (47.1%), axillary (32.3%) and femoral (12.2%). Almost 80% of the patient had their device placed through central veins. While placing cardiac devices through central veins is a common pathway, the leads can cause central vein stenosis (CVS) and carry the risk of tricuspid regurgitation by valve adhesion, perforation or entanglement [5-8, 14]. This point is critically important as many patients will progress to end-stage renal disease and require an AV fistula [10]. The placement of AV fistula requires the preservation of the vascular system in an upper extremity. In our study, a high prevalence of CKD patients who underwent a cardiac device procedure is at a higher likelihood of requiring hemodialysis. The development of central venous stenosis may prevent the creation of the life time (i.e. AV fistula) for a dialysis patient.

To preserve the central vascular access in CKD patient who are planning to have cardiac devices, placement of the leadless cardiac device and the use of the epicardial route is an important alternative to avoid the transvenous pathway. The validity of this approach was provided by recent studies [15-18]. Data from epicardial studies emphasized that the effectiveness and survival of epicardial leads are essentially the same as the endocardial leads [15-18]. Recently, a subcutaneous approach has also been reported in hemodialysis patients [16-18]. In our study only 4% (28/688) patients had leadless implanted cardiac devices (ICDs) implanted. Leadless ICDs do not use central veins and are located in the subcutaneous tissue. In this way, they avoid the risk of CVS.

Our study showed that a significant amount of patients undergoing cardiac device placement had advanced CKD. Because CKD is a progressive disease, many of these patients might require renal replacement therapy in the future. Transvenous devices is not a good choice in this group of patients as they cause CVS. This complication can prevent the creation of an AV fistula. The subcutaneous leadless cardiac device may be a better option in a patient with advanced CKD.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Department of Cardiology at Jersey Shore University Medical Center for their cooperation in this study.

Financial Disclosure

This project was not supported by any grant or funding agencies.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Informed Consent

Not applicable.

Author Contributions

Each author has individually been involved in and has made substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, analysis, interpretation of data, drafting and editing the manuscript. MAH and AA contributed to conceptualization and methodology; MAH, FA, HM, AA, KA, MA, SD, AQ, and MO were involved in investigation and data curation; SP contributed to formal analysis and validation; MAH and AM contributed to writing (original draft preparation); AA contributed to writing (reviewing and editing the manuscript); AA and MAH contributed to supervision and visualization; all authors have given final approval of the version to be published.

Data Availability

The authors declare that data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

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Journal of Clinical Medicine Research is published by Elmer Press Inc.