T-Wave Alternans in Dialysis Patients

Sudden cardiac death due to arrhythmia is the leading cause of death in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients treated with hemodialysis (HD). As it is anticipated that the number of individuals with ESRD will exceed 1.2 million in the next 20 years, sudden death in this population has enormous public health impact. Research has shown that arrhythmic events are temporally associated with longer periods between HD with a three-fold risk of events in the 12 hours preceding the longest inter-dialysis interval. The exact cause of these findings is unknown.