Serum Indoxyl Sulfate Is Associated with Vascular Disease and Mortality in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients

Baseline IS levels presented an inverse relationship with renal function and a direct relationship with aortic calcification and pulse wave velocity. During the follow-up period (605 +/- 217 d), 25 patients died, mostly because of cardiovascular events (n = 18). In crude survival analyses, the highest IS tertile was a powerful predictor of overall and cardiovascular mortality (P = 0.001 and 0.012, respectively). The predictive power of IS for death was maintained after adjustment for age, gender, diabetes, albumin, hemoglobin, phosphate, and aortic calcification.

The study presented here indicates that IS may have a significant role in the vascular disease and higher mortality observed in CKD patients.