Prevalence of pulmonary hypertension in peritoneal dialysis patients: a meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: Recent epidemiological evidence indicates an association between peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients and pulmonary hypertension (PH). However, the true prevalence of PH associated with PD has not been well described. So we conducted a meta-analysis to summarize the point prevalence of PH in adults with PD. METHODS: PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Collaboration, and the reference lists of relevant articles were searched to identify eligible studies. We used a random-effect meta-analysis model to estimate the prevalence of PH. We also performed sensitivity analyses and assessments of publishing bias. RESULTS: Fourteen observational studies (n = 1483 participants) were included in this meta-analysis. The result of analysis in random-effect model showed that the pooled prevalence was 21% (95% CI 16-28), with significant heterogeneity between these studies (I2 = 84%, p < 0.01). Sensitivity analysis further demonstrated the results to be robust. Besides, the Egger's test (p = 0.287) showed no significant publication bias. CONCLUSIONS: PH is highly prevalent in patients with PD. Further studies are encouraged to definitively clarify the relationship between PH and PD.