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 EN-RAGE 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.