Dietary Protein Requirements in Hemodialysis Patients

The primary purpose of this study is to assess dietary protein requirements in clinically stable maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. It is hypothesized that the average dietary protein intake (DPI) that will maintain nitrogen balance is 1.00 g protein/kg/day, but that a safe intake that maintains balance in almost all MHD patients is about 1.25g protein/kg/day.

A high proportion of maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients have protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) which is a powerful predictor of high morbidity and mortality. Although inflammation may contribute to PEM, low dietary protein intake (DPI) is often a contributing factor. The usual DPI of MHD patients in about 1.0 g protein/kg/day, whereas expert groups recommend = 1.20 g protein/kg/day. However, these recommendations are based upon few studies, often of insufficient duration, that were usually carried out with obsolete types of dialysis therapy. We will examine the response to different levels of dietary protein intake (0.6-1.3 g protein/kg/day) under classical balance techniques with carefully controlled dietary intakes, living, conditions, and collection of nitrogen outputs and carefully measured nitrogen intakes and outputs.