Focusing on patients with end-stage renal disease, we and others have separately evaluated the significance of the circulating CD34+ cell count to predict CVD outcomes in patients on maintenance HD[17,18], but the association of circulating CD34+ cells with patient outcomes combined with CVD-related mortality was not fully demonstrated because few CVD deaths occurred during the short follow-up of 2 years[17,18]. This evidence concerns the gene CD34 and stage 5 chronic kidney disease.