Prof. Ahmad Taher Azar :: Publications:

Background: Numerous studies have confirmed the relation between adequacy of dialysis and patient survival. The NKF/DOQI guidelines recommended a delivered KT/V dose equal or greater than 2.0. At Ahmed Maher Teaching Hospital’s nephrology department, the usual mean KT/V levels were found at repeated evaluation to fall at much lower levels than the recommended values. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between values of KT/V, TAC, and nPCR on hospitalization rates among dialysis patients. In addition, to find the effect of improving dialysis dose, on survival parameters. Methods: The study utilized an experimental design on 123 uremic patients on regular hemodialysis for more than 6 months. Baseline data was collected in June 2005 including delivered KT/V, nPCR, calculated TA,. Hb, Ca, P, and serum albumin. Correlation between rate of hospitalization among these patients with KT/V levels, TAC and nPCR was done. Attempts to increase KT/V were tried including increasing dialysis time, dilayzer surface area, blood and dialysate flow, as well as diagnosis and management of recirculation, and minimizing intradialytic hypotension. After 3 months (August 2005) the parameters were re-evaluated and the results were obtained. Paired samples T-tests were used to compare the improvement between the baseline and the re-measurement groups. The effect between dialysis dose and other laboratory parameters was performed using one way ANOVA with significant group differences of p< 0.05. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 13.0. Results: There was a significant correlation between rate of hospitalization and low KT/V values and low nPCR values. However this relation was not found in relation to TAC values. The attempts to improve KT/V values were evaluated. There were statistically significant differences between the delivered dialysis dose (Kt/V) in the two groups (0.99 ± 0.212 in June vs 1.212 ± 0.174 in August).