HIGH LIPOPROTEIN (A) LEVELS IN CHRONIC-HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS ARE CLOSELY-RELATED TO THE ACUTE-PHASE REACTION

To study the mechanism underlying the high lipoprotein (a) [Lp(a)] lev el in uremic patients on chronic hemodialysis, we investigated the lev els of Lp(a), acute phase reactants (C-reactive protein and sialic aci d), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in 54 dialysis patients. The mean [95% CI ] Lp(a) level was increased in the hemodialysis patients compared with the 30 controls (30 [25-36] vs. 18 [14-23] mg/dl, p <0.005). Among di alysis patients, 46% had an Lp(a) level >30 mg/dl, which was significa ntly higher than the percentage in the control group (17%). The levels of C-reactive protein, sialic acid, and IL-6 were also increased in d ialysis subjects compared with controls (200 [134-299] vs. 37 [24-58] mu g/dl, p <0.0001; 63 [59-66] vs. 54 [52-56] mg/dl, p <0.002;. and 9. 2 [7.8-11] vs. 5.5 [5.0-6.1] pg/ml, p <0.0005, respectively). The Lp(a ) level was positively correlated with that of C-reactive protein (r = 0.415, p <0.002), sialic acid (r = 0.426, p <0.002), and IL-6 (r = 0. 298, p <0.05) in the hemodialysis patients, but not in the controls or non-dialysis uremic patients. The Lp(a) level in the dialysis patient s was also positively correlated with activation markers of coagulatio n (thrombin-antithrombin III complex and plasmin-alpha(2)-plasmin inhi bitor complex, p <0.005). These results indicate that the Lp(a) level is closely related to the acute phase reaction and hypercoagulability in chronic hemodialysis patients.