الفهرس 
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Abstract
Introduction: Sclerostin (an antagonism of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway) represents a novel candidate glycoprotein involved in the pathogenesis of low bone turnover and vascular calcification in CKD patients (CKD-MBD). Atherosclerosis is one of two main forms of vascular calcification affecting CKD patients. Measurement of carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT) by ultrasonography is a widely used and reliable imaging modality for the detection of subclinical atherosclerosis (increased CIMT), presence, and follow-up the progression of atherosclerotic plaques. So, the aim of our study to investigate the association between serum sclerostin level and carotid artery atherosclerosis in hemodialysis patients. Methods: In our case-control study of 150 dialysis patients and 50 controls, serum sclerostin concentrations were measured using a commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). CIMT was measured and carotid plaques were identified by carotid duplex. Results: There was a statistically significant difference with p-value <0.001 as regarding sclerostin levels between cases (83.5±27.1 pmol/L) and controls (26.3±5.8 pmol/L) with mean among cases ~3 times higher than controls. The main finding of our study is the statistically significant positive correlation with p-value <0.001 between sclerostin levels and each of CIMT (r = 0.56) and plaques size(r = 0.53). Sclerostin levels were higher in patients with increased CIMT (77.6 ± 17.8 pmol/L) than with normal CIMT (70.9 ± 9.6 pmol/L) and the highest mean was among patients with plaque formation (109.3 ± 35.1 pmol/L), the difference was statistically significant with p-value <0.001. Conclusion: We can conclude that serum sclerostin is independently associated with carotid atherosclerosis (CIMT, plaques) in hemodialysis patients.
Keywords: Sclerostin - Wnt signaling pathway - CKD-MBD - Atherosclerosis - CIMT