الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Malnutrition is present in a large proportion of patients with chronic renal failure. This may be a consequence of multiple factors, including disturbances in protein and energy metabolism, infections and other superimposed illnesses, as well as reduced food intake because of anorexia, nausea and vomiting, caused by uremia. After commencement of maintenance dialysis treatment, most of the overt symptoms of uremia diminish or disappear and patients generally experience improved appetite. However, prevalence of malnutrition in dialysis patients is still high. This could be due to the losses of nutrients into dialysate, chronic blood loss, inflammation and associated illness. For that purpose, serial nutritional assessment of HD patients is important and required, and the malnutrition score may provide a practical and reliable method to evaluate nutritional status of these patients. The present work was done aiming to assess the nutritional status of HD patients in the dialysis unit of Medical Research Institute, in Alexandria. This assessment was done in the form of initial assessment, followed by re-assessment after a period of 6 months, and comparison between results of both assessments were also carried out. Through a cross-sectional study a total of 50 adult patients constituted the subject of the study, 76 of them were males and 24 were females, the age of patients ranged from 20 to 70 years old. Data were collected from every patient and recorded in a predesigned questionnaire, the recorded data were about sociodemographic characteristics of the patients, history of renal failure and dialysis, nutritional history as regard certain food items like protein and potassium rich food. Then the clinical assessment was done by the anthropometric measurements as weight, height, BMI, TSF, MAC and MAMC, also by the clinical examination for signs of nutritional deficiencies. Biochemical analysis for certain parameters as hemoglobin percent, serum albumin, cholesterol and triglycerids, serum calcium, phosphorus, sodium and potassium, also serum zinc, liver function test and peripheral blood glucose, as well as levels of urea and creatinine were performed. The clinical assessments also included dietary intake of energy, protein, carbohydrates and fat, and other micronutrients. A malnutrition score was calculated for each patient, the parameters used in the score were: BMI, TSF, MAC, MAMC, Hb level, signs of nutritional deficiencies and GIT complications.