Echography of left ventricular end-diastolic diameter as a reliable tool for estimating "dry weight" in hemodialysis patients.
OBJECTIVE
It is hard to decide an accurate value for the so-called dry weight (DW) in hemodialysis patients with cardiac disease. Our objective is to evaluate the efficacy of echocardiography to decide DW.


METHODS
115 patients on hemodialysis were divided into 2 groups: the cardiac disease group and non-cardiac disease group. The relationship between atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVDd) measured by echocardiography was examined.


RESULTS
There was a significant positive relationship between ANP and LVDd in the noncardiac disease group, but no significant relationship was noted in the cardiac disease group. The DW was re-evaluated and transferred into more suitable criteria for the patients who often became unconscious with decreased blood pressure during dialysis. When LVDd slightly increased beyond the new criteria of dry weight, unconsciousness was disappeared and blood pressure became stable.


CONCLUSIONS
Echocardiography examination is very beneficial for screening to determine DW for the patients with cardiac disease.
Yoshimura
Rikio
R
Department of Urology, Osaka City University Medical School, Abenoku, Osaka, Japan. hasetaro@msic.med.osaka-cu.ac.jp
Goto
Takeshi
T
Tsuchida
Kenji
K
Takemoto
Yoshiaki
Y
Wada
Seiji
S
Sano
Hajime
H
Kishimoto
Taketoshi
T
Yamamoto
Keisuke
K
Nakatani
Tatsuya
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor / Q000097:blood; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003971:Diastole / Q000502:physiology; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D006435:Renal Dialysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000502:physiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014682:Vena Cava, Inferior / Q000502:physiology; D016276:Ventricular Function
D015415:Biomarkers; D009320:Atrial Natriuretic Factor