Abdominal aorta and pelvic artery calcifications on plain radiographs may predict mortality in chronic kidney disease, hemodialysis and renal transplantation

Purpose Vascular calcification is common in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and predicts poor patient outcomes. While computed tomography is the gold standard for evaluation of vascular calcification, plain radiograph offers a simpler and less costly alternative. The calcification of abdominal aorta, iliac and femoral arteries has been evaluated by plain radiograph, but the data on their outcome predictabilities are still limited. The present study investigated the role of abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) and pelvic arterial calcification (PAC) in predicting overall morality in non-dialysis CKD stages 2–5 (CKD 2–5), maintenance hemodialysis (HD) and long-term kidney transplant (KT) patients.