Background: Kt/V urea was established as an index of hemodialysis (HD) adequacy. The use of V urea (as derived by the Watson et al formulae) as a normalizing factor has been questioned, and alternative parameters such as body weight 0.67 (W 0.67), body surface area (BSA), resting energy expenditure (REE), high metabolic rate organ (HMRO) mass and liver size (LV) have been proposed (respective HD adequacy indices: Kt/W 0.67, Kt/BSA, Kt/REE, Kt/HMRO and Kt/LV).
Methods: The present study aimed to calculate the 6 previously described normalizing factors (all obtained utilizing anthropometric variables) and to measure bioelectrical resistance (R), an independent and directly achievable biological parameter, in 481 white, disease-free individuals and 270 white prevalent HD patients, pair-matched by age, body weight and height, after stratification by sex. Further, we aimed to evaluate the effect of substituting BSA, W 0.67, REE, HMRO, LV and R for V urea as denominator in Kt/V urea on the distribution of target dialysis dose in a cohort of 1,058 white prevalent HD patients. All individuals underwent 1 single-frequency bioelectrical impedance measurement, on the nondominant side of the body, injecting 800 μA at 50 kHz alternating sinusoidal current with a standard tetrapolar technique.
Results: When comparing pair-matched disease-free men and women with HD men and women, respectively, only R was statistically significantly different (p<0.0001 and p<0.02, respectively). As expected, V urea, BSA, W 0.67, REE, HMRO and LV were not significantly different in both comparisons. Furthermore, equivalent Kt/R for a range of prescribed Kt/V urea was able to give a more clearcut differentiation among sexes and body sizes, when compared with the other methods for scaling dialysis dose.
Conclusions: BSA, W 0.67, REE, HMRO and LV, as well as V urea are derived by means of calculations which utilize anthropometric variables. In contrast, R is a biological parameter which can be directly measured in the clinical setting by means of a simple, low-cost, fast and repeatable procedure. Even though Kt/R is probably the most appropriate method for scaling dialysis dose among those evaluated in the present study, further work is required to develop these concepts and translate them into rigorous outcome-based adequacy targets suitable for clinical usage.