Results
The clinical and demographic characteristics of the patients are shown in Table 1. Patients were classified into five groups according to the GFR levels (stage I-V). Patients in stage II-III-V were older than stage I and IV. Body mass index and gender were similar between the CKD groups. While DM and smoking were similar in the groups, CAD was mostly observed in stage V. Stage IV patients had a significantly higher rate of hypertension and hyperlipidemia. In hematology analysis, white blood cell count and hemoglobin were the lowest in stage IV-V. In the biochemical analysis, the highest creatinine value was observed in stage IV-V. Stage IV patients had the lowest C-reactive protein value.
In the echocardiographic analysis, the left ventricular ejection fraction was similar in the CKD stages. The lowest APV was observed in stage IV-V, and the highest APV was observed in stage I-II (p<0.001) (Figure 3A). Stage IV-V patients had the highest EFT, and stage I-II patients had the lowest EFT (p<0.001) (Figure-3B). Moreover, the lowest CIMT was observed in stage III, and the highest APV was observed in stage V (p<0.001) (Figure 3C).
The correlation among the GFR, APV, EFT, and CIMT is shown in table 2. GFR was significantly and positively correlated with APV and negatively correlated with EFT and CIMT (Figure 4-6). APV was significantly and negatively correlated with EFT (r=-0.401 p<0.001) and CIMT (r=-0.628 p<0.001). EFT values had a significantly positive correlation with CIMT (r=0.522 p<0.001).
Multivariate linear regression analyses of the association between the GFR and multiple parameters are listed in table 3. In multivariate analyses, APV (OR: 0.289, p<0.001), EFT (OR: -0.135, p<0.001) and CIMT (OR: -0.388, p<0.001) were independent predictors of GFR.