A Comparison of Body Composition, Residual Biological Function and Dialytic Treatment of 20 Males and 19 Females Undergoing Chronic Peritoneal Dialysis

Giancarlo Ruggieri

In this study, 34 variables were compared among 20 males and 19 females undergoing chronic peritoneal dialysis based on four approaches of elaboration. The variables were selected from among a large number of variables of a database, that were available for both males and females. The first approach compared the data between males and females. The second approach performed a correlation between two series of variables available in males and between two series of variables available in females. 64 variables showed 80 positive correlations, and consistent results are shown in four tables; only the statistically significant results are shown. The third approach compared the body water content, calculated as total body water according to the formula by Watson, intracellular water, and extracellular water between males and females. The different forms of body water were normalized by height, weight and body mass index (BMI). Normalization affected the outcomes of values of intracellular and extracellular body water differently. The relevance of these different modifications was shown to depend on the variance of the indexing variables. Total body water, intracellular water and extracellular water were significantly different between males and females, with higher values for males. The only exception was the extracellular water/intracellular water ratio, which was higher for females, showing that females most likely have a larger amount of body water despite their lower body size.

https://doi.org/10.31871/WJRR.7.1.12