Buraczynska M, Jacob J, Gwiazda-Tyndel K, et al. - Among patients with end-stage kidney disease (ESKD), an increased susceptibility to cardiovascular disease in relation to the LDLR (low-density lipoprotein receptor) gene polymorphism was found for the first time ever in this study. This requires further exploration to corroborate that LDLR rs688 might represent a novel genetic risk factor with some prognostic ability for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in ESKD cases.

• This is a case-control study of 800 patients with ESKD and 500 healthy controls.

• The potential link of the LDLR rs688 polymorphism with CVD was assessed in ESKD patients on hemodialysis.

• ESKD group showed significantly higher frequencies of the T allele and TT genotype, with OR 2.2 and 5.84, respectively.

• A strong association of LDLR rs688 polymorphism with CVD risk was found in ESKD cohort, on comparing between CVD+ and CVD- subgroups.

• Post-adjustment, both CT and TT genotypes were found to be related to an elevated risk of CVD in the dominant, recessive and codominant models of inheritance.