Gastrointestinal (GI ) symptoms are proven to be more common in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis than in patients with chronic renal failure having hemodialysis. However, whether the onset of these GI symptoms is related to the chronic renal failure itself, its treatment, or alternatively, other factors, is still unknown.
A research article to be published on June 14, 2010 n the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Professor Guo from the Nephrology department of Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University used the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale, which is a self-administered questionnaire, includes 15 items and uses a 7-grade Likert scale defined by descriptive anchors such that 1=none, 2=minor, 3=mild, 4=moderate, 5=moderately severe, 6=severe, and 7=very severe discomfort, to evaluate the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms in peritoneal dialysis patients. As various research groups have indicated a higher prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis than in patients with chronic renal failure having hemodialysis, the article further investigates the possible correlated factors affecting the gastrointestinal symptoms in peritoneal dialysis patients by using multiple regression analysis.
The prevalence of eating dysfunction, reflux and indigestion in peritoneal dialysis patients was 44.2%, 32.7%, 32.7%, respectively. A history of corticosteroid therapy and the number of all pills the patients took daily were positively correlated to GI symptoms, while residual renal Kt/V was negatively correlated to GI symptoms.
These findings indicated that gastrointestinal symptoms in peritoneal dialysis patients were more correlated with chronic renal failure itself and other treatment-associated factors, but not with peritoneal dialysis-associated factors. Residual renal function is not only an index regarding the uremia itself but an index predicting complications. Iatrogenic factors were another aspect impacting the gastrointestinal symptoms in peritoneal dialysis patients, including the pre-dialytic therapy and adjuvant therapy during peritoneal dialysis.
Reference: Dong R, Guo ZY. Gastrointestinal symptoms in patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis: Multivariate analysis of correlated factors. World J Gastroenterol 2010; 16(22): 2812-2817 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v16/i22/2812.htm
Correspondence to: Zhi-Yong Guo, MD, Professor of Medicine, Department of Nephrology, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China. drguozhiyong@163.com Telephone: +86-21-81873291 Fax: +86-21-81873289
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World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2009 IF: 2.092. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.
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