• Giovambattista Desideri, Vincenzo Panichi, Sabrina Paoletti, Davide Grassi, Roberto Bigazzi, Sara Beati, Giada Bernabini, Alberto Rosati, Claudio Ferri, Stefano Taddei, Lorenzo Ghiadoni, and RISCAVID investigators.
• Department of Internal Medicine and Public Health, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy. giovambattista.desideri@cc.univaq.it
• Nephrol. Dial. Transplant. 2011 Sep 1;26(9):2983-8.

BackgroundWe tested the hypothesis that soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), a biomarker of proatherogenic inflammation, may be predictive of cardiovascular (CV) events in a subgroup of patients from the RISCAVID study, an observational and prospective study in patients on haemodialysis (HD).MethodsPlasma sCD40L levels were assessed at the time of the enrollment in 300 HD patients (mean age: 65 ± 15 years), recruited in five different centres. During a follow-up of 24 months, overall mortality, CV mortality and CV major nonfatal events (acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure and stroke) were registered. Cox proportional hazards regression assessed adjusted differences in CV morbidity and mortality risk.ResultsStratifying patients according to plasma sCD40L levels in those with levels lower or equal to (sCD40L-) and greater than (sCD40L+) the median value of 7.6 ng/mL, no significant difference was observed at baseline between the two groups in age, gender, blood pressure values and previous CV events. At 24-month follow-up, a significant (P < 0.01) lower incidence of the combined end point of CV morbidity and mortality was observed in the sCD40L- group (29%) as compared to the sCD40L+ group (36%). In the multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model, the presence of sCD40L above the median value is associated with a significant increase in the risk of CV morbidity and mortality (hazard ratio: 1.61, 95% confidence interval 1.03-3.11).ConclusionsThese observational results support the prognostic value of sCD40L in end-stage renal disease, thus providing a useful tool to better stratify CV prognosis in these patients.

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