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Abstract

Abstract


Objective: Cardiovascular diseases are the cause for 45% mortality and 20% morbidity in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Pericardial effusion (PE) accounts for 03 - 04% of all deaths in HD patients as a result of tamponade, arrhythmias or heart failure. This study aims to find out the prevalance and precipitating factors for PE in hemodialysis patients.
Patients and Methods: Fifty five patients were identified for echo-cardiographic assessment on the basis of signs and symptoms suggestive of PE i.e., hypotension during dialysis, dyspnea, globular heart in chest x-ray, raised JVP, soft heart sounds and low voltage ECG. A matched controlled group of 55 patients for age, sex, dialysis schedule, cause of ESRD and dialysis bath, was also studied echocardiographically.
Results: Pericardial Effusion was detected in 12 patients (10.9%), 10 (83.3%) were on 2/week and only two on 3/week dialysis. Of these 75% were non-compliant in fluid intake and 58.3% were irregular in treatment. The morbidity of PE in study group (18.2%) is significantly higher as compared to controls (3.6%) (P=