Relationship between serum calcium level at dialysis initiation and subsequent prognosis

BackgroundIn patients on maintenance dialysis, increased serum calcium levels are known to be associated with a poor prognosis. However, it is not known whether serum calcium levels at dialysis initiation have an impact on subsequent prognosis.MethodsThe subjects were patients who were newly initiated dialysis at the 17 Aichi Cohort Study of Prognosis in Patients Newly Initiated into Dialysis (AICOPP) group centers. The study included 1524 patients who were at least 20 years old, had CKD, and provided written consent. We excluded one patient whose serum adjusted calcium was not assessed and six patients whose outcomes were unknown. Thus, we enrolled 1517 subjects into the study. The patients were divided into the following five groups: (1) G1 with a serum adjusted calcium level