Association of serum albumin level and venous thromboembolic events in a large cohort of patients with nephrotic syndrome

• Published in: Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation dialysis, transplantation, 2017-01, Vol.32 (1), p.157-164
• Main Authors: Gyamlani, Geeta, Molnar, Miklos Z, Lu, Jun L, Sumida, Keiichi, Kalantar-Zadeh, Kamyar, Kovesdy, Csaba P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Anticoagulants - therapeutic use; Female; Glomerular Filtration Rate; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Nephrotic Syndrome - complications; Original; Prospective Studies; Risk Factors; Serum Albumin - analysis; Venous Thromboembolism - blood; Venous Thromboembolism - diagnosis; Venous Thromboembolism - drug therapy; Venous Thromboembolism - etiology
• ISSN: 0931-0509; 1460-2385
• DOI: 10.1093/ndt/gfw227

Prior small studies have suggested an association between low serum albumin and increased risk of venous thromboembolic (VTE) events in patients with nephrotic syndrome (NS). From a nationally representative prospective cohort of over 3 million US veterans with baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m 2 , we identified 7037 patients with NS based on ICD-9 codes. Association between serum albumin and risk of incident VTE was assessed using Cox regression analysis with adjustments for age, gender, race, comorbidities, eGFR, body mass index and anticoagulant treatment. Mean age was 57 ± 11 years, patients were 96% male, 32% African-American and 60% diabetic. There were a total of 158 VTE events over a median follow-up of 8.1 years; 16 events [absolute event rate (AER) 4.1%, event rate 8.5/1000 patient-years (PY)] in patients with albumin