There is a rising incidence of kidney failure in the US, with poor outcomes and high cost. End-stage renal disease (ESRD) affects almost 375,000 individuals in the US at a cost of more than $14 billion per year. Despite advances in dialysis and transplantation therapies, kidney failure leads to poor outcomes, poor prognosis and high health care costs. Malnutrition and the underlying systemic inflammatory response developed during the course of chronic kidney disease, worsen during ESRD, and leads to adverse outcomes, increased morbidity and mortality. Muscle wasting, impaired functional capacity and poor quality of life are the most important factors associated with malnutrition and inflammation in renal failure. We have shown in pre-dialysis patients with moderate chronic renal insufficiency that the anabolic effects of resistance exercise training result in significant improvements in protein utilization, nutritional status and functional capacity even in the context of anorexia and prescribed low protein diets. Thus, we propose to develop, test and implement a progressive resistance exercise routine for ESRD patients during the hemodialysis session. Our hypotheses are that the addition of 30-45 min of resistance exercise training during the dialysis session will counteract the burden of renal disease and will result in: 1) A feasible and safe exercise modality for ESRD patients (6-wk feasibility phase tested in 10 patients); 2) Net anabolism as evidenced by: improved nutritional status (i.e. increased protein catabolic rate, muscle mass and muscle strength); and reduced systemic inflammatory response (i.e. reduced C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, and increased serum albumin levels) compared to a randomly assigned control group on hemodilaysis but not exercise training (6-mo efficacy phase tested in 20 patients/group); and that 3) Improved self-reported physical function (i.e. increased SF-36 physical component scale) observed with resistance training will be associated with the improvements in nutritional status and inflammatory response. The long-term goal is to implement resistance exercise training routines during hemodialysis to overcome the underlying malnutrition and inflammation of ESRD and to improve disease outcome and prognosis. By implementing such intervention, we hope to offer a therapeutic strategy that can be incorporated to the standard of care of ESRD patients by working in conjunction with the dialysis unit staff.
| Chen, Joline L T; Godfrey, Susan; Ng, Tan Tan et al. (2010) Effect of intra-dialytic, low-intensity strength training on functional capacity in adult haemodialysis patients: a randomized pilot trial. Nephrol Dial Transplant 25:1936-43 |
