Clinical events occurrence and the changes of quality of life in chronic haemodialysis patients with dry weight determined by echocardiographic method

Abstract

The maintenance of circulating blood volume within an optimal range is necessary for haemodialysis patients to avoid circulating complications, including over-hydration and dehydration. Inferior vena cava diameter (IVCD) estimation is a non-invasive method to obtain a well correlation with the intravascular fluid status, and it may get a reliable ideal dry weight (DW) for chronic haemodialysis patients. We try to analysis the life quality changes and circulating complication in chronic haemodialysis patients who adjust DW with this tool in comparing with the traditional method. A total of 100 chronic haemodialysis patients, ranging from 26 to 77 years old, were involved in this study. They are randomly divided into study (n = 50) and control group (n= 50). All of them received the IVCD estimation by echocardiography every month for 3 months. The patients in the study group adjusted the DW with the IVCD estimated by echocardiographic method, however, patients in the control group with the traditional method. The quality of life (QOL) was evaluated with the short form 36 questionnaire (SF-36) in the beginning and the end of the study. The scores of physical functioning (PF), role limitation-physical (RP), general health (GH) and role limitation-emotional (RE) have much improvement in the patients of the study group than those in the control group. Besides, the occurrence of clinical events due to circulating complications during the study period showed significant reduction in the extents of hypotension, gastrointestinal upset, discontinuation of haemodialysis, muscular cramps, tinnitus, headache and chest discomforts with electrocardiographic changes; and these effects, especially, are significant in the patients with over-dehydrated status, which with the IVCD < 8 mm/m2 detected by echocardiographic method. The study demonstrated that ideal DW estimated by echocardiographic method not only improved the QOL but also reduced the circulating complications during haemodialysis for chronic haemodialysis patients.