ABSTRACT
Patients in chronic hemodialysis have a high mortality due to cardiovascular diseases. To study cardiovascular risk factors and nutritional status in a group of patients in maintenance hemodialysis, body mass index, blood pressure, serum levels of total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, triglycerides and albumin were measured in 15 patients (8 males). Data were compared with available figures for the normal chilean population. Age ranged from 33 to 60 years oldin female patients and from 22 to 63 years old in males. Thirteen subjects (87 percent) has a high blood pressure, all had HDL cholesterol levels below 35 mg/dl, 4 (27 percent) had a total cholesterol over 200 mg/dl, 3 had triglyceride levels over 200 mg/dl, 2 (13 percent) smoked and none were diabetic. Mean body mass index was normal, albumin levels were 4.16 and 4.02 g/dl and serum creatinine was 11.64 and 9.68 mg/dl in males and females respectively. The estimated prevalence of high blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia and smoking in the general chilean population range from 9 to 22 percent, from 50 to 52 percent and from 45 to 51 percent respectively. In conclusion, this group of patients has a high frequency of high blood pressure and low HDL cholesterol levels