Is there any survival advantage of obesity in Southern European haemodialysis patients?
GROUND: In the general population, a high body mass index (BMI) is associated with increased cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. However, according to US epidemiological evaluation in maintenance haemodialysis (HD) patients, a reverse epidemiology is described and baseline obesity appears paradoxically associated with better survival. The aim of this study is to examine in a Southern European HD population the relationship between survival and BMI at the start of HD treatment, and how survival is influenced by the body weight (BW) variations during the first year of treatment. METHODS: A total of 85 dialysis centres located in Portugal, France and Italy and belonging to the FME European dialysis chain were included. The current prospective analysis focuses on incident patients admitted to these centres between 1 January 2000 and 30 September 2005 with <1 month of previous follow-up on RRT. Data were gained from the FME EuCliD database. Patients were classified at baseline i
