Objective: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of the increased morbidity and mortality observed in uremic patients. The prevalance of cardiovascular diseases is high in the dialysis patients. Thrombosis is an important contributor to the evolution of atherosclerotic lesions. Tissue factor is a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed by cells of many paranchimal organs and connective tissue. Tissue factor triggers the coagulation system in vivo. We measured the tissue factor levels in patients treated with CAPD (continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis) and hemodialysis, assuming that plasma tissue factor levels may have a correlation with high prevalance of cardiovascular diseases in patients maintained on hemodialysis and CAPD. We compared the tissue factor levels of the patients to the controls.

Material and Methods: Tissue factor levels were measured in 26 CAPD, 30 hemodialysis patients and 27 healthy control subjects with ELISA method. In our study, we used IMUBIND Tissue Factor ELISA kit purchased from American Diagnostica (Stamford, USA).

Results: As compared with the control group (53.05 ± 23.0 pg/ml), tissue factor levels were significantly higher in CAPD (102.38 ± 26.13 pg/ml) and hemodialysis (94.48 ± 48.14 pg/ml) groups (p<0.001). The levels were higher in CAPD patients when compared to hemodialysis patients but the difference was not significant (p>0.05). Plasma tissue factor levels showed no correlation with serum creatinine or urea levels in the study groups (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Chronic renal failure patients, treated with hemodialysis and CAPD, showed increased plasma tissue factor levels. Elevated tissue factor levels may be related to thrombosis and atherosclerosis in patients with chronic renal failure that are maintained on hemodialysis and CAPD.