Doxycycline may reduce the incidence of aneurysms in haemodialysis vascular accesses.

BACKGROUND Doxycycline can prevent aortic aneurysms through the inhibition of enzymes that degrade vessel walls. We investigated whether haemodialysis patients who had received one or more courses of doxycycline were at less risk for aneurysms in their vascular accesses than those who had received other antibiotics. METHODS Three hundred and eight patients undergoing chronic maintenance hemodialysis were evaluated for aneurysm formation after exposure to doxycycline or another antibiotic. Conditional forward logistical analysis using Cox proportional hazards test (SPSS) was performed to determine the potential significance of differences of aneurysm formation between the two groups. RESULTS Patients who had received doxycycline appeared to be at lower risk than the control group, but the effect was most obvious in those patients with synthetic grafts. CONCLUSIONS Doxycycline may have the ability to reduce aneurysm formation in haemodialysis vascular accesses and a large prospective study is warranted.