[Nutritional assessment of patients on chronic hemodialysis: what is our reality?]

We evaluated 22 patients with chronic renal failure on hemodialysis. Nutritional status was evaluated by anthropometric indices, levels of serum albumin, lymphocytes, transferrin, complement and creatinine generation. Protein intake was estimated from 6 surveys performed over a period of 6 months and socioeconomic status gauged by social survey. Mean weight was 106% of expected being definitely low in 5 patients. Sixteen patients had at least one abnormal test, with a low transferrin level being the most common (15 patients). Mean caloric intake was 27.8 cal/kg/day and protein intake 0.96 g/kg/day. Good correlation between protein intake estimated by diet survey and urea nitrogen balance was observed. No correlation of nutritional status and socioeconomic status was observed. We conclude that patients on chronic hemodialysis commonly have malnutrition and low caloric intake.