Peritoneal equilibration test in Chinese patients

Since the introduction of the peritoneal equilibration test (PET) by Twardowski in 1987, it became a widely accepted test that provided useful prognostic information on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD). It had been shown to be a readily reproducible test if the standard procedure was followed. Although there was wide interpersonal difference in the test results, the mean and range (and standard deviation, SD) were remarkably similar as suggested by Davies et al. in 1993 (3). We had performed PET on our CAPD patients for a few years, and all along we used the reference range established by Twardowski to classify our patients into High, High average, Low average, and Low transporters because no reference range had ever been established in Chinese. The aim of this study was to define the normal mean and range of the PET results in Chinese CAPD patients. We analyzed 100 PET results from 100 Chinese CAPD patients. The mean +/- (SD) of the ratio of dialysate/plasma of creatinine and glucose at four-hour dwell times were 0.71 (0.15) and 0.37 (0.12), respectively. There was a significant difference in the dialysate/plasma ratio of creatinine (p < 0.01) while that of glucose was similar when compared with those found by Twardowski. There was no difference in the solute transfer in diabetic and nondiabetic patients. We concluded that the creatinine clearance of the peritoneal membrane in Chinese CAPD patients was higher than the previously reported result in North American patients.