Prevalence of calorie protein malnutrition among patients in chronic hemodialysis in a regional hospital in Chile

Background: Malnutrition has been strongly associated with morbidity and mo rtality in hemodialysis patients. In the other band, dialysis allows a nutr itional improvement in patients with more than 12 months in dialysis. Aim: To study the prevalence of malnutrition among patients in hemodialysis. Pat ients and methods: We measured clinical, anthropometric and biochemical par ameters of nutritional status in chronic hemodialysed patients. Results wer e related to individual time in dialysis. Patients with more and less than 12 months in dialysis were compared. Results: Twenty nine patients (18 male ) aged 14 to 65 years old, were studied. Mean caloric intake was 23,8 Cal/K g and protein intake was 0,7 g/Kg. Mean body mass index was 21.7 +/-3.7 kg/ m(2) Thirty eight percent of patients had a body mass index of less than 20 kg/m2. Mean serum albumin was 4.1 +/-0.7 g/L; mean prealbumin was 33.5 +/-7 .9 mg% and creatinine was 9.6 +/-2.8 mg%. Serum cholesterol was 182 mg% and triacylglycerol 129 mg%. PCR was 42.2 +/- 18.8 and Kt/V was 1.45 +/-0.3. W e did not find a correlation between nutritional markers and time in dialys is or a difference in nutritional parameters between patients with less or more than 12 months in dialysis. Conclusions: These patients in chronic dia lysis have a high prevalence of caloric malnutrition, which may be due to a poor caloric intake. Protein malnutrition parameters were normal in most p atients. The absence of abnormal lipid levels, common in chronic renal fail ure, is noticeable.