Kidney disease tied to sudden death in women

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Advanced kidney disease appears to increase the risk of sudden death in women with heart disease, according to findings from the Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study.

While previous studies have shown that kidney disease is associated with sudden death in patients with implantable heart devices, the current study extends the observation to a much healthier group, senior investigator Dr. Michael G. Shlipak and colleagues write in the journal Hypertension.

To determine the impact of kidney disease on the risk of sudden death, Shlipak, at the University of California, San Francisco, and associates analyzed data for 2,760 postmenopausal women, younger than 80 years of age, with heart disease. Subjects with severe heart failure were excluded.

The women were divided into three groups based on kidney disease: minimal/none, moderate or severe. During nearly 7 years of follow-up, there were 135 sudden deaths due to sudden cardiac arrest.

After accounting for various factors that may have contributed to their disease, the women with advanced kidney disease were three times more likely to experience sudden death than were those with normal kidney function.

An increased risk was still apparent even after accounting for the presence of heart failure and heart attack, suggesting that kidney disease alone can raise the risk of sudden death.

SOURCE: Hypertension, April 7th online 2008.