Are there two types of malnutrition in chronic renal failure?
Divisions of Renal Medicine and 1 Baxter Novum, Department of Clinical Science and Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden and 2 Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, University of California, Davis and 3 Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mather, CA, USA Introduction It is believed that malnutrition is common in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF). They have reduced body weight, depleted energy (fat tissue) stores, loss of somatic protein (low muscle mass) and low levels of serum albumin, transferrin, pre-albumin and other visceral proteins. Various studies show signs of malnutrition in 23 76% of haemodialysis (HD) and 18 50% of peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients [1 4]. Such variations in the prevalence of malnutrition may be related to factors such as age, case mix, co-morbid conditions and quality of dialysis therapy. The aetiology of malnutrition in CRF is complex and may include many factors, e.g. poor food intake because o
