Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in hemodialysis patients. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to detect echocardiographic abnormality in the beginning and after 12-month follow-up in the hemodialysis patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a cross-sectional study, 60 hemodialysis patients older than 18 years and the dialysis duration longer than three months were enrolled. At the beginning of the study, echocardiography was done and after 12 months was repeated in all of the patients by the same cardiologist. At the end of the study, data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 19). RESULTS: From the total of cases 37 were male and 23 female. At the beginning of the study, mitral regurgitation, tricuspid regurgitation and aortic insufficiency were found in 54, 47 and 11 patients respectively. After 12 months left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) decreased significantly, however there was no significant difference between other echocardiographic findings at the beginning and after 12 months. CONCLUSION: Decrease in LVEF over time in hemodialysis patients may be due to negative effect of uremia on cardiac function, so it seems that periodical cardiac evaluation of these patients is essential and beneficial.