Blood Pressure of Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients in the Dalmatian Region of Croatia: Differences between Hospital and Out-of-Hospital Dialysis Centers.

AIMS This study was aimed at comparing the incidence of arterial hypertension and blood pressure (BP) variance in hospital and out-of-hospital hemodialysis (HD) patients during HD sessions. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted for 1 week at all the HD centers in Dalmatia, Croatia. The pre-, intra-, and post-dialysis BP values were collected for 3 consecutive HD sessions per patient. RESULTS Of the 399 subjects, 73.9% were hypertensives, who showed higher interdialytic weight gain compared to the normotensives (2.58 vs. 2.40). Hospital and out-of-hospital HD patients received identical antihypertensive therapies, except that beta blockers were more frequently administered to out-of-hospital HD patients. Higher pre-, intra-, and post-dialysis BP values were recorded in patients at out-of-hospital HD centers. CONCLUSION The differences in BP variability and antihypertensive therapies administered to hospital HD patients as compared to out-of-hospital HD patients may reflect differing approaches by the nephrologists at these centers.