| [ Summary ] |
We are conducting a prospective cohort study, named the Q-Cohort Study, in which approximately 3,600 patients receiving chronic hemodialysis were registered and clinical outcomes were defined as all-cause mortality including death due to infection and cancer, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), and bone fractures. The clinical features of participants in this cohort are very similar to those of the Japanese hemodialysis patients in the database as of December 31, 2006 provided by the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy except for hemodialysis treatment time which is longer in our cohort. We have published several reports using the database of this cohort in which associations of hyporesponsiveness to erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, use of vitamin D receptor activators, increases in cardiothoracic ratios observed chest X rays, and decrease in muscle mass with risks for all-cause and infectious mortality, development of MACE, or incidence of bone fracture. We are now conduction investigations in a 10-year study of those patients. |