| Abstract: | Urea kinetic modeling measures the delivered dose of hemodialysis and is used to monitor dialysis adequacy. Obtaining samples for adequacy calculations is a challenge for home hemodialysis (HHD) patients. Ideally, the urea reduction ratio (URR) should be measured at a typical dialysis session; therefore, for HHD patients test specimens should be drawn at home and transferred to a clinical laboratory. Would blood urea nitrogen (BUN) remain stable if samples were mailed to the laboratory? To answer this question, BUN was measured in pre- and postdialysis samples from 20 patients over 8 days of laboratory storage. While BUN values varied among the patient population, neither pre- nor postdialysis values showed any significant variation during the 8-day storage time. These results suggest that BUN values are sufficiently stable for specimens to be drawn at home and mailed to a testing laboratory. |
