Comparing Dialysis Lab Results

It may be constructive if readers of this blog have an opportunity to compare lab readings from two different individuals. We are each unto our own, and lab readings follow this discourse. But, if we look at lab readings as “how are we doing vis-a-is “the competition,” perhaps insights are derivable that would not be apparent by just comparison with what labs state are goals.

A respondent to blog posts on this blog and I have developed rapport due to our common interest in peritoneal dialysis employing the Fresenius Liberty Cycler. He recently shared his lab readings and I constructed the table below so our readings may be compared side-by-side and with stated lab goals where established. See the table below and the comments following.

Pulling out some numbers now. Neither of us are where we should be regarding Albumin. I’m always low regardless of how much red meat I ingest. Low Albumin is a plague for those of us on dialysis.

His Calcium is much better than mine but this could be due to his younger age (74 versus 84.) My IPTH is much higher. IPTH indicates a balance of calcium and phosphorus in our blood. High phosphorous can cause high IPTH which can lead to bone and heart damage.

Both of us are down on wkt/V which measures whether or not we’re getting enough dialysis to adequately clean our blood. However, at least from my dialysis team’s perspective, we are close enough to keep on doing what we are doing without alteration of our dialysis prescription.

For kicks, I calculated eGFR for both of us using my Android App for this purpose. For him I used age = 74 and the Creatinine value of 8.98. His eGFR is 6. For me, I used age = 84 and a Creatinine value of 7.27 and obtained an eGFR of 7. So we’re both in the tank from an eGFR perspective as should be expected since both of us are on PD.

Bottom line: As the table above suggests, although we are two entirely different individuals, our labs don’t really vary that much, given that we are both on dialysis.