A Multi-center Prospective Cohort Study Based on Peritoneal Dialysis Telemedicine-assisted Platform

The growing number of patients with ESRD leads to an increasing medical burden all around the world. Patients on PD have a similar long-term survival rate as patients on hemodialysis, with a much lower cost of medical resources. Therefore, increasing the percentage of patients on PD may relieve the increasing financial burden for the whole society.

Of note, technique survival and patient survival in PD still need to be improved. Based on results from multi-center cohort studies, some prognostic factors have been explored and intervened in recent years. However, robust data from large samples on potential predictors pertaining to patients' clinical characteristics, and PD practice on clinical outcomes in the real world is still limited. This phenomenon calls an action on exploring novel risk factors of patient outcome, especially through national-level prospective cohort study.

The investigators are developing a national-level PD database by registering all patients receiving PD on PD TAP. The study is underway in 27 hospitals from 14 provinces located at 7 geographical regions (northwest, northeast, north, central, southwest, southeast and south) in China. National samples of PD units are recruited based on the availability of professional PD team who is willing participant and could regularly follow participants. Our study aims to enroll adult 7,000 patients with end stage renal disease receiving PD. Patients-, treatment- and telemedicine-level variables are collected at baseline and thus at 3-month intervals. PD practice surveys are collected at baseline. All-cause mortality and transfer to hemodialysis will be recorded as primary outcomes. Other clinical outcomes including infectious and non-infectious complications would be recorded. Apart from the above objectives, potential collaboration between PDTAP and local or international clinical research could develop ancillary studies with specific aims. Examples of key research and ancillary investigation proposed in PDTAP study are as follows: 1) Long-term effects of telemedicine on clinical outcomes of patients on PD: a propensity matched study, 2) Anemia, erythrocyte-stimulating agents, inflammation and the association with mortality in patients on PD, 3) The management of serum calcium, phosphate, and hyperparathyroidism and its relationship with mortality in patients on PD, 4) The prevalence of hypomagnesemia, and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in patients on PD, 5) The prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of PD-related peritonitis, 6) Association between hemoglobin levels and serum albumin levels and mortality in diabetic and non-diabetic patients on PD, 7) Glucose absorption (measured as the difference between the amount of glucose in peritoneal dialysate absorbed into the peritoneal cavity in 24h and that measured in the 24h drained effluent) and its association with metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular events, and mortality in patients on PD. The follow-up will be continued until the end of the study.