MEASUREMENT OF PERITONEAL-DIALYSIS DELIVERY IN CHILDREN

We measured urea [weekly urea clearance/total body water (KT/V(urea))] and creatinine (C(Cr)) clearances on 35 occasions in 15 stable chroni c peritoneal dialysis patients to determine the feasibility and reprod ucibility of such measurements in children. In addition, we performed peritoneal equilibration tests (PETs) to characterize our patients' pe ritoneal membranes and to estimate weekly clearances. We demonstrated that dialysis delivery can be quantified by these standard measurement s in children of widely varying size. Further, we found that clearance s predicted from PET data were similar to measured values in all patie nts. However, predicted and measured values were most significantly co rrelated in patients with high and high-average peritoneal membrane pe rmeability. KT/V(urea) and C(Cr) were correlated overall, but differen ces in scaling affected the validity of the relationship. When both cl earances were scaled to weight, the correlation was closer, but still differed between PET-determined peritoneal membrane types.