Quantification of creatinine kinetic parameters in patients with acute renal failure

BACKGROUND: Urea kinetic modeling (UKM) and creatinine (Cr) kinetic modeling (CKM) are used in the nutritional evaluation of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Both the UKM-derived normalized protein catabolic rate (nPCR) and the CKM-derived estimate of lean body mass (LBM) may also provide important information in critically ill acute renal failure (ARF) patients. Estimation of LBM may be particularly useful as previous data demonstrate that malnutrition adversely influences outcome in ARF patients. METHODS: Eleven critically ill ARF patients (age 52 +/- 21 years; mean +/- SD) treated with continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH) were the study group. They were analyzed at steady state with a single-pool variable-volume model that determined the creatinine generation rate (GCr) by a methodology that we have previously described. RESULTS: The CVVH ultrafiltrate production rate was 913 +/- 49 ml/hr, yielding a blood Cr clearance of 15.2 +/- 0.9 ml/min and a steady state serum Cr of 3.4 +/- 1.7 mg/dl. Daily creatinine generation normalized to body wt (creatinine index: CI) was 6.3 +/- 0.8 and 10.6 +/- 3.0 mg/kg/day for females (N = 4) and males (N = 7), respectively (P < 0.05). Estimated mean LBM was 30.0 +/- 2.0 and 41.2 +/- 7.0 kg in females and males, respectively (P < 0.05), while the same parameter normalized to body wt was 0.50 +/- 0.05 and 0.52 +/- 0.10, respectively. These values are substantially lower than those previously reported for both normal and ESRD patients. Regression analysis demonstrated both GCr (r2 = 0.96; P < 0.001) and LBM (r2 = 0.96; P < 0.001) were significantly correlated with steady state serum Cr in a linear manner. However, no significant correlation (r2 = 0.06; P = 0.24) between nPCR and CI was observed. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest critically ill ARF patients have severe somatic protein depletion. This malnourished state is likely due to deficits established prior to the development of ARF, such as those secondary to underlying chronic illnesses or prolonged hospitalization, and deficits related to acute hypercatabolism. Quantitative assessment of malnutrition in ARF patients with this CKM-based methodology may permit a better understanding of predisposing factors and, consequently, facilitate the development of interventions designed to prevent malnutrition in these patients.