The Japanese Journal of Clinical Dialysis Vol.20 No.12(6)

Theme New Trends in Nutritional Assessment of Dialysis Patients
Title Nutritional assessment by computed tomography in hemodialysis patient
Publish Date 2004/11
Author Sakae Ohkawa Department of Clinical Nutrition, University of Shizuoka
Author Mari Odamaki Department of Clinical Nutrition, University of Shizuoka
Author Hiromichi Kumagai Department of Clinical Nutrition, University of Shizuoka
[ Summary ] Although measurement of body composition, such as muscle mass and fat mass, is important for nutritional assessment, the conventional method seems to be insufficient to evaluate body composition in hemodialysis patients. We tried to measure the muscle area in the thigh and the abdomen by using computed tomography (CT) for muscle mass indicator. Since the muscle area strongly correlated with creatinine production measured from spent dialysare, the muscle area was suggested as a reliable indicator of muscle mass. Furthermore, muscle area was positively correlated with several nutritional indicators, including serum albumin, prealbumin and protein equivalent of nitrogen appearance. In addition, abnormal lipid metabolism and its consequences may be expected from the visceral fat area and the intramuscular fat area in hemodialysis patients. Measurement of muscle and fat area with CT is useful for nutritional assessment in hemodialysis patients.
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