Association of the Nutritional Status and Essential Amino Acids Intake in Hemodialysis Patients

Kim, Hye Jin; Kim, Su An; Sohn, Cheong Min

Abstract

The mortality and morbidity rate of hemodialysis patients (HD) remain high. Among many factors, protein and calorie malnutrition has been shown to be a major risk factor for increased mortality in the HD patients population. Malnutrition can be caused by insufficient amino acid intake, nutrient losses in dialysate, oxidant stress and muscle catabolism. In this study, we evaluated the association of markers of nutritional status and essential amino acids intake in HD patients. We investigated nutritional status of 41 HD patients (mean age: 64.2 +/- 11.5 y, men: 24, women: 27) by measuring anthropometric, biochemical parameters and food intakes by using 24 hr recall methods. Subject's total energy intake and total protein intake were 1,648.0 +/- 397.31 kcal/day, 79.2 +/- 27.2 g/day, respectively. The animal protein intake was 42.7 +/- 22.1 g/day, essential amino acids intake was 23.4 +/- 9.92 g/day, and the ratio of essential amino acids to total protein intake was 29.6 +/- 5.42%. There were significantly positive correlation between muscle mass and lean body mass with serum creatinine level (r = 0.435, p < 0.01; r = 0.435, p < 0,01). There were also significant positive correlation in muscle mass and lean body mass with pre hemodialysis blood urea nitrogen (preHD BUN)(r = 0.329, p < 0.05; r = 0.329, p < 0.05). There were no significant correlation in total energy intake and total protein intake per kg ideal body weight (IBW) to muscle mass and lean body mass. However, there were significantly positive correlation between the ratio of essential amino acids and muscle mass and lean body mass (r = 0.368, p < 0.05; r = 0.405, p < 0.01). And serum hematocrit concentration was positively correlated with the ratio of essential amino acids (r = 0.032, p < 0.05). The results of this study indicate that strong associations exist in essential amino acid intakes with malnutrition than total protein intakes in HD patient. In conclusion, specialized nutrition education should be necessary to efficiently improve the quality of protein intakes.