Frequency of maintenance hemodialysis patients meeting K/DOQI criteria for serum calcium, phosphorus, calcium phosphorus product and PTH levels; a single institutional experience from Pakistan: a cross sectional study

INTRODUCTION: There is a great scarcity of literature in Pakistan investigating the proportion of end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD) who meet the recommended kidney diseases outcome quality initiative (K/DOQI) guidelines for serum calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), calcium phosphorus product (Ca x P) and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels. Our study aimed to determine frequencies of patients who met the K/DOQI targets for these minerals at a tertiary care hospital's dialysis unit. METHODS: 111 ESRD patients on maintenance HD were selected from a tertiary care hospital. Serum Ca and P were assayed on chemistry analyser. PTH was measured through electrochemiluminescence sandwich method. Data were compared with K/DOQI targets and analysed using SPSS-21. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 55.85 years (SD ± 13.95). Gender distribution was almost equal with 49.5% males and 50.5% females. The patients had mean corrected serum Calcium 9.12 ± 0.64 mg/dL, Phosphorus 4.57 ± 1.54 mg/dL and Parathyroid hormone 333.8 ± 278.4 pg/mL. The patients had achieved K/DOQI target ranges of Ca, P, PTH, Ca x P product and all 4 criteria in 63.1%, 47.6%, 38.7%, 84.7% and 10.8% respectively. CONCLUSION: Majority of patients on maintenance HD at our institution did not achieve the recommended K/DOQI target ranges. Further studies pertaining to the Asian subcontinent will prove resourceful for comparison of mineral metabolism and dialysis outcome of ESRD patients.