Kt/V
When my kidneys were originally failing way back in 2000, I was trying to understand why I needed to get a transplant. He explained it something like this (paraphrasing, because my memory stinks):
your creatinine is 10.3, your kidneys are not cleaning your blood effectively, the wastes that are building up in your bloodstream will damage your internal organs.So, when a simple change to my dialysis routine sent me to the hospital, I reviewed my chart at Davita. My Kt/V was in the good or adequate range (i forget their actual terminology), which as far as Davita and Dr. Goel (the Nephrologist I fired) were concerned that was good enough.
What's Kt/V? Wikipedia says, "Kt/V is a dimensionless number used to quantify hemodialysis efficiency". Where V is the volume of water in the body. T is the time dialyzed and K is the dialyzer clearance of Urea.
So, what I can't understand is how we can say I'm adequately dialyzed, when my Creatinine is around 14...I'm not a nephrologist, but I'm pretty sure that's in the range that would damage my internal organs.
My new nephrologist and I discussed this briefly and he recommended that we extend my dialysis from 3.5 hours to 4 hours. After seeing my creatinine at 14, I agreed.