ABSTRACT
Objective To compare the degree of atherosclerosis in middle-aged versus elderly patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD),and to explore the relationship between inflammatory molecules in venous blood and atherosclerosis.Methods Totally 87 elderly patients and 64 middleaged patients with CKD were selected.The vein fasting blood samples were taken in the morning.Serum levels of interleukin (IL)-18,IL-6,tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α),high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and ankle-brachial pulse wave conduction velocity (baPWV) was detected.Results Inflammatory molecules such as IL-18,IL-6,TNF-α and hs-CRP levels in venous blood were increased with the severity of CKD in both two groups,and the levels of inflammatory molecules were higher in elderly group than in middle-aged group.There was a signifiant difference in the detection rate of patients with baPWV＞1400 cm/s between elderly group and middle-aged group [30 cases (34.5％) vs.11 cases (17.2％),x2 =5.58,P＜0.05].The prevalence of PWV＞1400 cm/s was higher in patients with hyperlipidemia and hypertension than in patients with diabetes or heart disease (elderly group:100％,100％ vs.45.5％,40％; middle-aged group:80％,100％ vs.28.6％,33.3％,respectively; P＜0.05).The inflammatory protein (IL-18,IL-6,TNF-α and hs-CRP) levels were significantly higher in patients with baPWV＞ 1400 cm/s than those with baPWV ＜ 1400 cm/s (P＜0.05).Conclusions The degree of atherosclerosis is more severe in elderly CKD patients than in middle-aged CKD patients,which needs to be taken seriously enough.