Assessment of the 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease among a group of patients on maintenance hemodialysis: A cross-sectional study from Cameroon

OBJECTIVE To assess the 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease and potential impacting factors among patients undergoing hemodialysis in Yaoundé, Cameroon. DESIGN A cross-sectional study in January 2016. SETTING Patients were recruited at the dialysis unit of the Yaoundé University Teaching Hospital, Cameroon. PARTICIPANTS These were hemodialysis patients aged 20 years and above, dialyzing in the above unit since at least 3 months and volunteering to be enrolled in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The risk of cardiovascular disease was assessed using the Framingham risk score. RESULTS We included 44 patients. The risk of cardiovascular disease ranged from less than 1% to more than 30% with a median of 12.3% (interquartile range 4.9-24.4). Twenty hemodialysis patients (45.5%) had a low risk of cardiovascular disease (<10%), 10 (22.7%), a moderate risk (10-20%), and 14 (31.8%) presented a high risk of cardiovascular disease (>20%). In multivariable linear regression analysis, duration on dialysis (adjusted β = 0.11; p = 0.003), number of weekly sessions of physical activity (adjusted β = -1.35; p = 0.018), fasting serum glucose levels (adjusted β = 4.22; p = 0.022), serum triglycerides levels (adjusted β = 5.94; p = 0.033), and serum urea levels (adjusted β = -2.08; p = 0.039) were independently impacting our patients' risk of cardiovascular disease. CONCLUSION Around 55% of our study population presented a moderate or high risk of cardiovascular disease. Duration on dialysis, number of physical activity sessions per week, fasting serum glucose, serum triglycerides, and serum urea levels may impact our hemodialysis patients' risk of cardiovascular disease.