ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Although the evaluation of fluid status in hemodialysis (HD) patients is useful, relationship among pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP), dry body weight (DW) and natriuretic peptide has not been elucidated. In addition, there has been no objective marker for instantaneously monitoring hemodynamic improvement in response to HD. We previously reported that PCWP and time constant of left ventricular pressure decline (Tau) can be noninvasively estimated (ePCWP and eTau) by speckle tracking echocardiography (STE). The aim of this study was to elucidate the relationship among ePCWP, eTau, DW and natriuretic peptide in patients undergoing HD. METHODS: We measured ePCWP and body weight (BW) by STE in 81 patients and ANP and BNP by blood examination in 31 patients just before and after HD during sinus rhythm. RESULTS: The ePCWP decreased after HD, and this was associated with reductions in ln ANP, eTau and BW (r = 0.523, 0.271 and 0.814, respectively, p < 0.05). The % change in ePCWP was not correlated with the % change in ln BNP (p = 0.47). The change in ePCWP had a stronger correlation with the % change in BW than the change in any other parameters. CONCLUSIONS: The ePCWP is more sensitive to estimate the change in BW during HD than any other parameters such as ANP and BNP. These results indicated that a substantial amount of excess fluid can be assessed real-time by STE using ePCWP.
