Renal involvement and metabolic alterations in adults patients affected by cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is one of the most frequent genetic diseases and the median survival of these patients has improved in the last few decades, therefore it becomes necessary to evaluate the long-term complications as renal and cardiovascular risk factors.

To evaluate the incidence, the manifestations of renal disease and the possible association with metabolic and endothelial dysfunction markers in the CF population.

We performed a cross-sectional, observational study on 226 CF patients. Clinical and laboratory instrumental parameters (metabolic, inflammatory and endothelial dysfunction markers) were evaluated.

We showed 65 patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 158 patients with a reduced value of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), of which 58 patients with a severe reduction of FEV1. Moreover 28 patients had undergone lung transplantation and them had a significant lower estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) with respect to the non-transplanted patients (p < 0.001). We reported also a significant association between lower eGFR value and serum triglycerides, total cholesterol and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) (p = 0.005, p < 0.001, p = 0.040; respectively), with a significant negative correlation between eGFR and serum triglycerides (r = − 0.28; p < 0.01). Moreover we found a significant association between lower eGFR value and serum uric acid (SUA) (p = 0.005), while we did not found an association with 25-hydroxy-vitamin-D value, serum glucose and hemoglobin A1c levels.

Our study showed a high prevalence of CKD in CF patients. Moreover we showed an increase of endothelial dysfunction and metabolic indexes in patients with reduced renal function, as SUA, serum triglycerides and LDL, suggesting the need for an early and complete screening of the main metabolic indexes to reduce cardiovascular risk and progression of renal damage, in particular in patients with lung transplant.