Neutrophil reactive oxygen formation, bacterial infections and mortality in malnourished hemodialysis patients: Evaluation of clinical outcomes

Introduction: Patients with end stage kidney disease undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) are prone to malnutrition and infections. Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of polymorphonuclear (PMN) cell dysfunction on clinical outcomes of MHD patients, in association with nutritional status. Methods: This prospective study investigated 39 MHD patients by evaluating the oxidative activity of their PMN cells using Phorbol 12-Myristate-13-Acetate (PMA) stimulation. Blood samples were taken from each participant at dialysis initiation. Demographics, laboratory data, and clinical outcomes during a 24-month follow-up period were obtained from electronic medical records. Results: Phagocytic activity was described in percentiles of mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) of PMA levels. There were no differences in comorbidities between patients with low or high MFI-PMA percentiles. Patients in the lowest (25th) MFI-PMA percentile (N = 10) had poorer nutritional status and more frequent severe infections compared to the other 29 patients (4.3 ± 3.4 events versus 2 ± 2.2 events, p = 0.017). Furthermore, they had more frequent hospitalizations (>3) due to infections (70% versus 41%, p = 0.073) and their mortality rate was higher (80% versus 31%, p = 0.007). The odds ratio for all-cause mortality was 8.85. In multivariate analysis, the MFI-PMA percentile and ischemic heart disease were the strongest predictors of all-cause mortality (p = 0.02 and p = 0.005, respectively). Conclusions: Low MFI-PMA levels were associated with poor nutritional status and adverse clinical outcomes and might serve as a prognostic biomarker, predicting severe infections and mortality among malnourished MHD patients.