Evaluation of glycemic status during the days of hemodialysis using dialysis solutions with and without glucose

Hypoglycemia has been documented during regular hemodialysis (HD) in both diabetic and nondiabetic end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the glycemic fluctuations in diabetic and nondiabetic ESRD patients during HD days using glucose-free and glucose-containing dialysate. We conducted a prospective interventional study in which 32 ESRD patients (16 diabetic and 16 nondiabetic) were included in the study. All the patients underwent two HD sessions with glucose-free bicarbonate solution (phase 1) and next two HD sessions done with 100 mg/dL glucose-containing dialysate (phase 2). Serum glucose was measured using a continuous glucose monitoring system at the 1^st h, 2^nd h, and 4^th h in both the phases. Percentage of time above and below preset target range (70-140 mg/dL) in 24 h on HD days in both phases was noted. Glucose loss in effluent fluid from dialyzer also was estimated at the 1^st h, 2^nd h, and 4^th h. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software. Data are expressed as mean ± standard deviation. The Chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical variables. Continuous variables were compared using Student's t-test. Value of P <0.05 was considered statistically significant. With glucose-free dialysate solution, 20 patients (diabetic - 15, nondiabetic - 5) had 22 episodes of hypoglycemia in 64 sessions and with glucose-containing solution, only five patients (diabetic - 4, nondiabetic - 1) had five episodes of hypoglycemia (P = 0.002). For all patients, glucose lost (g/h) in the effluent fluid was at lower values in phase 2 (5.91 ± 1.5) when compared to phase 1 (7.08 ± 10.9) (P <0.0002). This was also observed both among the diabetic and nondiabetic patients. The mean percentage of time below target out of 24 h on HD days in phase 1 was significantly higher as against phase 2 (33% vs. 18.7%; P = 0.0001) which was observed both among diabetic group (18.65% vs. 13.5%; P = 0.03) and nondiabetic group (48.12 % vs. 23.4%; P = 0.0003); the mean percentage of time above the target (>140 mg/dL) out of 24 h on HD days was significantly higher than phase 2 (21.1% vs. 9.3%; P = 0.0001). This was also observed among diabetics group of patients (18.8% vs. 8.6 %; P = 0.0001). Most of this time above target occurred during the post HD period. However, in the nondiabetic group, there was no significant difference between the two phases. Glucose-containing dialysate at 100 mg/dL significantly reduced the hypoglycemic episodes and also the intensity of hypoglycemia. Diabetic patients dialyzed with glucose-free dialysate had increased time above target (akin to Somogyi effect) in the post HD period compared to same patients dialyzed with glucose-containing dialysate. Hence, glucose-containing dialysate appears to offer better glycemic control and lesser glycemic fluctuations during HD days for both diabetic and nondiabetic ESRD patients.