Defining adequacy of CAPD with urea kinetics.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the validity of applying urea kinetic indices to CAPD. According to the peak concentration hypothesis, the values of Kt/V required for adequate dialysis are lower for CAPD than for hemodialysis because of the continuous steady state nature of CAPD. Pilot clinical studies were undertaken in 19 patients to correlate the (Kt/V)urea index with clinical assessment of adequacy based on a 12 parameter score. The data shows that the correlation between serum urea nitrogen (Kt/V)urea and protein catabolic rate (PCR) are in keeping with the theoretical predictions of the urea kinetic model. PCR and dietary protein are well correlated. Also, PCR and Kt/V had a high degree of positive correlation. Serum creatinine was inversely correlated with (Kt/V)creatinine. In 74% of the patients, the clinical assessment of adequacy was in agreement with the (Kt/V)urea domains of adequacy established from the peak concentration hypothesis and the urea kinetic model. The lack of correlation in the remaining 26% is being investigated.