Background and objectives Uremic
pruritus is a recurrent and delicate manifestation in patients suffering from
end-stage renal disease. It is a consequence of multiple factors, primarily comprising of metabolic factors and complement activation along with
interleukins. The objective of our study was to find out the associated factors of uremic
pruritus in chronic
hemodialysis patients. The secondary aim was to obtain cut-off values of all the markers predicting
pruritus. Materials and methods A cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the nephrology department of a tertiary care hospital including 135 patients. The current occurrence of
pruritus was diagnosed on the basis of a validated and reliable scale of
pruritus among
chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients in the local language. Multivariate logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analysis were conducted to decipher the required objectives. Results Study participants had a mean age of 56.29 ± 10.51 years with 56.3% males and 43.7% females.
Hypertension was frequent comorbidity (75.6%) followed by diabetes (51.9%). Mean body mass index (BMI), duration of CKD diagnosis, and
hemodialysis onset were 26.55 ± 5.37 kg/m2, 6.58 ± 3.65 years, and 3.32 ± 2.09 years respectively.
Pruritus was reported in 37.0% of the study participants. On multivariate logistic regression, presence of skin
allergy (aOR: 8.100 [2.926-22.420], p<0.001),
phosphate >4.5 mg/dL (aOR: 3.889 [1.118-15.532], p=0.033), female gender (aOR: 3.592 [1.337-9.655], p=0.011),
albumin <3.5 g/dL (aOR: 2.987 [1.156-7.716], p=0.024) and
potassium >5.1 mEq/L (aOR: 2.934 [1.030-8.355], p=0.044) were found significantly associated with
pruritus. Conclusion Many factors were linked to
pruritus in
hemodialysis patients in the current study. The current study also significantly correlated certain factors with
pruritus independently.