EN-RAGE (extracellular newly identified receptor for advanced glycation end-products binding protein) and mortality of long-term hemodialysis patients: A prospective observational cohort study

Objectives: EN-RAGE is extracellular newly identified receptor for advanced glycation end-products binding protein playing a role in inflammation. The aim was to test the relationship of EN-RAGE to prognosis of long-term hemodialysis patients (HD). Design and methods: This is a prospective observational cohort study in 261 HD patients followed up for five years. Laboratory parameters were measured at the beginning of the study. Results: EN-RAGE was slightly but unsignificantly increased in HD patients compared with healthy controls and correlated significantly with inflammatory markers. Univariate Cox analysis demonstrated ENRAGE as a significant predictor for mortality due to infection (HR (95%CI): 1.305 (1.063-1.602), per standard deviation, p = 0.01), but this significance disappeared in multivariate Cox analysis when CRP was included into the model. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates EN-RAGE as an inflammatory biomarker. It is related to mortality of HD patients due to infection, but in our study, it did not provide additional information to CRP. (C) 2012 The Canadian Society of Clinical Chemists. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.