title: Alternate-day dialysis may be needed for hemodialysis patients.
abstract: Zhang et al. studied the relationship between day of the week and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in the United States, Europe, and Japan. The study confirms findings of studies of US patients that risk of all-cause and cardiac mortality is higher after a long interdialytic interval, and shows that this is also true in Europe and Japan. Alternate-day dialysis may improve patient survival on hemodialysis, but randomized trials are necessary to establish a new schedule.
authors.affiliation: Chronic Disease Research Group, Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404, USA. jliu@cdrg.org
authors.forename: Jiannong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Robert N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Foley
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000401:mortality*