Dialysis Adequacy: A Cross-Sectional Study to Assess the Reliability of the Online Clearance Monitor to Measure Dialysis Dose

• Published in: Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2024-01, Vol.16 (1), p.e52328-e52328
• Main Authors: Rajagopalan, Arul, Raja, Niranjan, Mohan, Gandhi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dialysate; Dialyzers; Hemodialysis; Kidney diseases; Mortality; Nephrology; Patients; Sample size; Sodium
• ISSN: 2168-8184; 2168-8184
• DOI: 10.7759/cureus.52328

Background Frequent assessment of the dialysis dose delivered to hemodialysis patients might help improve morbidity and mortality. Daugirdas' second-generation formula is the recommended method for calculating dialysis doses. However, urea reduction ratios (URRs) and online clearance monitors (OCMs) are frequently used to assess dialysis adequacy due to their more straightforward concept and ease of use. This study was conducted to determine the most reliable method for measuring dialysis adequacy by comparing the correlation of urea reduction ratio and online clearance monitor measurements with the dialysis dose measured using the recommended Daugirdas' second-generation formula. Methods This study was an observational, cross-sectional, single-center study. The dialysis dose was measured as a urea reduction ratio and by an online clearance monitor simultaneously for 50 patients. It was compared to the dialysis dose measurements obtained using Daugirdas' second-generation formula. Results There was a statistically significant strong positive correlation (r = 0.929; p ≤ 0.001) of the urea reduction ratio and a poor concordance (ρC = 0.401; p ≤ 0.001) of online clearance monitor measurements with the dialysis dose measured using Daugirdas' second generation formula. Conclusion Our findings illustrate that the urea reduction ratio may be a more straightforward and reliable means for assessing the adequacy of intermittent hemodialysis with minimal errors in patients compared to online clearance monitors. Online clearance monitors offer easy estimation and practicality with minimal effort but are prone to multiple errors and may not be accurate in some settings.