Fatigue in chronic peritoneal dialysis patients

Fatigue is a common complaint in long termdialysis patients that may influence theirquality of life. The present study was carriedout in order to evaluate the prevalence andcourse of fatigue in a group of chronic PDpatients and to find the possible factor(s)related to its development. We retrospectivelyreviewed 100 charts of the patients previouslyon PD. The presence or absence of fatigue inthe 1st and last clinic visits and the 1st and2nd changes in fatigue state were studiedaccording to the monthly clinical records ofthe primary nurses. Data regarding dialysatevolume, urine volume, weekly erythropoietin(EPO) dose, hemoglobin, hematocrit, blood urea,serum creatinine, residual renal creatinine andurea clearances, dialysate to peritonealcreatinine ratio (D/P Cr), total weekly Kt/Vand total creatinine clearance/l.73 m² bodysurface area (TCrCl) were collected. Fifty-fivepatients were male and 45 female. The mean ageat the 1st clinic visit was 61.3 ± 16 years.At the 1st visit 55 patients had fatigue and 45did not. In 32 of the 55 patients fatiguedisappeared after a mean duration of 7.9 ± 8.4months and in 31 of the 45 patients fatigueappeared after a mean duration of 8 ± 6.8months. So at the last visit the frequency offatigue increased significantly from 55% to67% (p < 0.001). In patients with fatigue themean age and female percentage were higher(64.2 ± 14.1 vs 57.8 ± 17.6, p = 0.05 and 1.2vs 0.5, p < 0.05 respectively), mean hemoglobinconcentration was lower (104.4 ± 14.7 vs110.6 ± 14.2 g/L, p < 0.04) and mean EPO dosewas higher (6379.6 ± 7142 vs 3395.4 ± 4337.8units/week, p < 0.02) at the 1st clinic visit.EPO dose was also higher in patients withfatigue at the last visit (8253.7 ± 10317.3units/wk vs 4736.4 ± 5432.5, p < 0.03). Nocorrelation was found between dialysis adequacyaccording to either weekly Kt/V or TCrCl andnutritional state according to nPCR andfrequency of fatigue. We conclude that fatigueis a common symptom in PD patients and it'sprevalence increases over time. Anemia seemsto be the most important factor associated withfatigue. Dialysis adequacy and nutritionalstate did not show any correlation with thefrequency of fatigue in our study.