Pattern of peritoneal permeability in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients in Brunei.
OBJECTIVE
Peritoneal permeability may be dissimilar in different populations. The present study identified the pattern of peritoneal permeability in continuous ambulatory dialysis (CAPD) patients treated at the Department of Renal Medicine, RIPAS Hospital, Brunei Darussalam.


METHODS
Data were collected from patients on CAPD in 2001 (n = 65). Four children were excluded from the study. The remaining 61 patients underwent a 4-hour peritoneal equilibration test (PET) as prescribed by Twardowski et al. For those patients, adequacy of dialysis (Kt/V) was estimated. A retrospective analysis of the peritoneal membrane characteristics of those CAPD patients was also conducted. The membrane characteristics were compared with the urea clearance results.


RESULTS
Of the 61 patients, 40 were non diabetic, and 21 (34.43%) were diabetic. More than half of our patients (55.74%) had membranes classified as high-average, followed by low-average (22.95%), high (18.03%), and low (3.28%). When the patient population was grouped separately into non diabetic and diabetic patients, peritoneal permeability differed between the groups (p = 0.000585). No relationship was observed between weekly Kt/V and transport characteristics in the group with diabetes (p = 0.219306), the group without diabetes (p = 0.74179), or the entire patient population (p = 0.376832)


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that peritoneal permeability among Bruneian CAPD patients is probably different from that among patients from other regions of Asia (more than half of our Bruneian patients had a peritoneal membrane classified as high average). We believe that the observed difference may be related to a difference in ethnicity. In general, patients with diabetes have a highly permeable membrane. Adequacy of dialysis had no correlation to PET results in our study. A larger prospective study is required to confirm our findings.
Dwarakanathan
Ranganathan
R
Department of Renal Medicine, RIPAS Hospital, Brunei Darussalam.
Yaakob
Hjh Zarah
HZ
Hadi
Hasnani
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002010:Brunei; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010531:Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory; D010537:Peritoneum / Q000378:metabolism*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult