Discussion
We concluded that bone marrow-derived circulating fibrocytes were significantly increased in ESRD patients with HD compared with controls. Our data suggested that these cells might play essential roles during MF in HD patients.
Methods
We carried out a flow cytometry analysis to measure the proportion of peripheral blood circulating fibrocytes in a cohort of 126 healthy control individuals and 161 subjects with HD. Cardiac function and morphology were assessed by electrocardiogram and transthoracic echocardiogram. Findings: Compared to healthy controls, individuals with ESRD had significantly higher levels of circulating fibrocytes. There was a strong correlation between the frequency of fragmented QRS (fQRS) and circulating fibrocytes in HD patients. Furthermore, higher fibrocytes correlated to increasing age, dialysis age, left ventricular mass index (LVMI), left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and hypertension complication. On multivariate analysis, the dialysis age [odds ratio (OR) 1.011, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.003-1.019, p = 0.006], LVMI (OR 1.012, 95% CI 1.002-1.022, p = 0.016), hypertension (OR 4.303, 95% CI 1.129-16.406, p = 0.033), and fQRS (OR 2.439, 95% CI 1.049-5.262, p = 0.038) were significant independent predictors of fibrocytes percentage.