There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
This study was carried out in seven patients being treated by intermittent hemodialysis.
Each had some residual renal function. In protocol 1, when the patients were dialyzed
weekly and the dietary protein intake was 0.96 g/kg/day, the nitrogen balance corrected
for changes in the urea pool was positive during the days between dialysis; the serum
urea concentration (SUN) before dialysis was 109 +/- 7 mg/dl. In protocol 2, when
dietary protein was reduced to 0.4 g/kg/day and supplemented with essential amino
acids (10 g/day), the corrected nitrogen balance on days between weekly dialyses was
positive; the SUN before dialysis was lower than it was in protocol 1 (-33 +/- 7 mg/dl,
P less than 0.01). The nonurea space (body weight minus body water) increased in six
of seven patients during protocol 2. Two patients were then treated with the dietary
regimen of protocol 2 and dialyzed every 2 weeks. The corrected nitrogen balance on
nondialysis days was positive, and there was a further increase in nonurea space.
This study suggests that dialysis frequency may be reduced in some patients with residual
renal function by means of nutritional therapy.