Body composition, fitness score and arterial stiffness assesment in a chronic hemodialysis population

Patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis have a high risk of cardiovascular disease. Arterial stiffness is highly prevalent in this type of patients. The aim of our study was to analyse the relationship between body composition, blood chemistries and arterial stiffness in a poorly fit population of chronic hemodialysed patients. Patients and methods involved measuring body composition and fitness score by multifrequence bioimpedance with the body composition analyzer InBody720 and arterial stiffness by the measurement of aortic Pulse Wave Velocity (PWVao) and Aortic Augmentation Index (Aix) using an oscillometric method on 65 HD patients; measurements were made before a midweek dialysis session. Results: PWVao correlated significantly with weight (p=0.01, r2=1.14), body fat mass (p=0.007, r2=0.14), abdominal circumference (p=0.01, r2=0.12) and with fitness score (p=0.01, r2=0.11). Aix correlated with weight (p<0.05, r2=0.25), intracellular, extracellular- and total body water (p<0.05, r2=0.24) with body protein, soft lean mass, minerals, fat free mass and skeletal muscle mass (p<0.05, r2= 0.3) and with serum calcium (p=0.005, r2=0.2). Conclusions: Arterial stiffness is a common feature of the hemodialysed patients, significantly related to the blood calcium, fitness score and the body composition, especially fat body mass.