Prescribing hemodialysis using a nomogram approach to urea kinetic modelling.

Several studies have clearly shown that the dose of dialysis is a determining factor for the well-being of dialysis patients. These studies have also suggested that doses of dialysis represented by Kt/V of about 1.4 should be optimal doses. This dose must be measured at the time it is delivered, since for various reasons, the delivered dialysis is often less than the prescribed dose. This report describes a series of nomograms that can be used to estimate the first hemodialysis prescription, to verify the amount of dialysis delivered to the patient, and to estimate the protein catabolic rate. These nomograms should be useful in those dialysis centers where, for one reason or another, computerized urea modelling is not a routine. The nomograms in the present report should be used for evaluating the adequacy of conventional hemodialysis.