DOQI guidelines in peritoneal dialysis. Dialysis outcome quality initiative.

The DOQI initiative produced 32 guidelines for peritoneal dialysis. The guidelines on adequate dose of peritoneal dialysis and criteria for starting dialysis treatment constitute the core of the document and are expected to have the most important impact on clinical practice. These guidelines are based mainly on circumstantial evidence and observational studies, thus they must be considered for what they are, i.e. useful operational tools open to discussion and not absolute truth. The potential impact of the DOQI guidelines in a dialysis programme is shown using the anthropometric data of 1061 adult patients on file in the Calabrian Registry of Uremia, Dialysis and Transplantation.