Knee-to-knee bioimpedance measurements to monitor changes in extracellular fluid in haemodynamic-unstable patients during dialysis

Over the last few decades, continuous advances in dialysis technologies have increased the safety and efficacy of hemodialysis (HD) [1]. At present, many of the common acute complications during HD are related to fluid status and impaired compensatory mechanisms. In particular, the accuracy to measure changes in intradialytic fluid status and to assess the fluid overload remains a problem. Inaccuracy might result in excessive volume depletion during treatment, and possibly, the development of intradialytic hypotension (IDH) due to excess drop in systolic blood pressure. IDH increases patient morbidity (e.g. via nausea, vomiting, headaches and muscle cramps), reduces treatment efficacy, and increases the risk of mortality [2].

In recent years, multi-frequency bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) techniques have become more clinically attractive as they enable non-invasive, simple, and relatively inexpensive tools to assess continuously the fluid status during HD [3]. A high level of accuracy for whole-body BIS (whBIS) compared with gold standards (e.g. dilution methods) have been reported in literature [4,5]. As the accuracy and reproducibility of whBIS can be influenced by external factors, such as changes in body position, the sum of segmental BIS bioimpedance (sBIS) technique was introduced [6,7]. Yet, the application of whBIS or sBIS for routine clinical use is sometimes impractical, as it requires a relatively complex implementation. Patients have to be motionless in a fixed position with arms and legs extended during the whole treatment and extra cables and electrodes are required. This is uncomfortable for many patients and costly, especially as it requires continuous surveillance to ensure intraindividual reproducibility. Moreover, correct placement of electrodes can sometimes be difficult due to the dialysis fistula or other medical conditions. As extremities account for up to 88% of the total body impedance [8], alternative configuration of BIS, namely knee-to-knee BIS (kkBIS) [9] was introduced. This new configuration should be reliable for continuous applications while avoiding the need for complex setups as required for whBIS or sBIS. To our knowledge, the adequacy of kkBIS so far has only been assessed in hemodynamically stable patients.

This study aimed at comparing the adequacy of kkBIS with whBIS in respect to continuous monitoring of extracellular fluid volume in hemodynamically unstable HD patients, and the usefulness of kkBIS for detecting the patient’s risk of IDH. The correlation between whBIS and kkBIS on the basis of changes in absolute extracellular resistance (R_e) and R_e normalized for ultrafiltration volume (ΔR_e/UFV) has been investigated. Finally, volume calculations from both methods were compared and their cumulative changes were investigated against collected ultrafiltrate.

The mean age of the patients was 62 ± 16 years with a body height of 170 ± 9 cm and 35% of patients being female. Twenty patients each were categorized as stable or unstable during HD. Table 1 summarizes the baseline clinical characteristics of the study population and their treatments. Apart from the whole-body extracellular volume ECF_whBIS (p = 0.009), there was no significant differences between the groups at baseline with regard to their clinical characteristics and dialysis settings (Table 1) or composition of dialysate fluid (data not shown). If ECF_whBIS were to be normalized to baseline patient’s weight, no significant difference could be observed (p = 0.928). Baseline thigh’s ECF value did not contribute as well to the hemodynamic stability of the patient with p = 0.769, or if normalized to weight, with p = 0.200.

Clinical and physical assessment of the patients revealed that 35% of the patients showed signs of pre-dialysis overhydration mainly in the thigh and lower leg with a mean systolic blood pressure of 135 ± 9.6 mmHg. Intradialytic mean weight loss was 2.1 ± 1.0 kg in the stable group and 1.8 ± 0.9 kg in unstable patients (p = 0.499). Systolic pressure decreased by 14.8 ± 9.5 mmHg in stable and by 20.1 ± 14.8 mmHg in unstable patients (p = 0.356).

The correlation of relative changes in ΔR_e and in ΔR_e/UFV between the whBIS and kkBIS method is given in Fig. 2(a-b). Intradialytic changes in ΔR_e (%) correlated very well between the methods (R² = 0.86, p < 0.001) for both groups. If normalized for UFV, the correlation was slightly improved to R²= 0.92, p < 0.001. Loss in the thigh’s extracellular fluid (ECF_kkBIS) also correlated with the total body loss in ECF (R² = 0.88, p < 0.001) for stable patients and to a lesser extent (R² = 0.51, p < 0.001) for unstable patients. This correlation persisted, when the thigh ECF was estimated using a specific resistivity value for the legs (ECF_kkBIS,Z). Nevertheless, ECF_kkBIS,z values for all patients were slightly higher (0.25 ± 0.17 L) in comparison to those (ECF_kkBIS: 0.20 ± 0.07 L) calculated using a fixed resistivity value for the whole body.

Fig.2

The relative change in ΔR_e/UFV in [%/L] during treatment is shown in Fig. 3(a) for kkBIS and in Fig. 3(b) for whBIS; their ratio is presented in Fig. 3(c). The relative changes in thigh and total body ECF with respect to pre-HD values are given in Fig. 3(d). Within the first hour of HD, the loss of thigh ECF_kkBIS was 7.7 ± 3.3 % in stable patients compared to 3.5 ± 2.3 % loss of total body ECF. In unstable patients, thigh ECF_kkBIS decreased by only 1.8 ± 1.5 % compared to 6.4 ± 2.4 % in total body ECF. Only at the end of HD, the decrease in thigh ECF_kkBIS (9.1 ± 3.7 %) approached that of total body ECF (11.1 ± 3.4%) for unstable patients.

Fig.3

Linear regression analysis revealed a good relationship between relative intradialytic weight loss and changes in R_e (for both whBIS and kkBIS), Fig. 4(a-b). Similar results were obtained for ΔECF compared to the collected UFV as shown in Fig. 4(c-d). Nevertheless, data revealed a significantly larger relative change in R_e normalized to wt (pre-HD to post-HD) for unstable patients. Moreover, if we consider the difference in (ΔR_e,whBIS - ΔR_e,kkBIS)/Δwt between pre-HD to post-HD, stable patients would be characterized with a significant lower mean difference of 0.51 ± 0.89 compared to 1.1 ± 1.20 for unstable ones (p < 0.001).

Fig.4

Compared to stable patients, the accumulative loss in thigh ECF_kkBIS was significantly lower in unstable patients especially within the first hour of the treatment (p = 0.004 after 60 min). Fig. 5(a-b) depicts the accumulative changes in ECF, estimated either from kkBIS or whBIS method, and compared to the accumulative UFV during HD treatments in both patient groups. Fig. 5(c) presents their ratio for both patient groups.

Fig.5

In the present study, we compared the application of the kkBIS with the standard whBIS method to assess the extracellular fluid status in a cohort of symptomatic unstable versus stable HD patients. kkBIS not only increases the comfort of the patient but was also found to correlate very well with whBIS. Furthermore, the intradialytic changes in parameters (as ΔR_e/UFV and ΔR_e/wt) obtained via kkBIS might be used to identify patients at risk of IDH.

Similar to previous work [17], our data confirms that baseline characteristics do not allow differentiating stable from unstable patients. In order to compare kkBIS with the traditional method whBIS, the first step was to compare the measured intradialytic changes in R_e and R_e normalized to UFV. Regression analysis revealed an excellent correlation between both methods, which is in agreement with the work of Cox-Reijven et al. [18]. The next step was to compare the estimated ECF from measured R_e values. Here, lower agreement (R² > 0.50) between the methods was observed for the unstable group in particular. This could be due to the model applied to make segmental volume calculations. The estimation of ECF volumes is subject to some uncertainty concerning interpretation of the collected impedance data and a number of simplifications as the use of constant resistivity derived from a healthy population [11, 19]. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that in our study, segmental volume calculations using a specific resistivity value for legs fully correlated with those done using a constant resistivity value for the whole body, Fig. 2(d).

The relative change in extracellular resistance (R_e) normalized to UFV could be another way to identify unstable patients, without being subject to possible inaccuracies arising from calculating ECF volumes, Fig. 3(a-b). This could be of particular interest especially when profiled ultrafiltration rate is applied. The ECF transport rate from legs to the trunk plays a pivotal role in this refilling process [20, 21]. Shulman et al. [20] found that legs contributed up to 0.69 L to the change in total body ECF of 1.33 L as measured by whBIS during 18 dialysis sessions with a mean UFV of 2.0 L, while the trunk contributed only 0.17 L. Others observed that during HD, major changes in total body extracellular resistance localized to the legs as compared to the arms and torso [7, 22, 23]. Fig. 3(c) partially reflects the contribution from the upper parts of the legs (thighs) to the total changes in R_e. The lower ratios of ΔR_e,kkBIS/ΔR_e,whBIS for unstable patients, compared with stable patients, may indicate a reduced ability of the leg compartments to keep up with the volume changes in the trunk, possibly leading to a significant reduction in blood volume and, thus, to development of IDH, Fig. 3(d). Only later during dialysis, this ratio starts to catch up with that of stable patients possibly due to clinical intervention. If relative changes in ECF with respect to pre-HD values were considered, a similar observation held true. In stable patients, the losses of ECF_kkBIS from leg compartments followed those of the whole-body with an equivalent slope throughout the treatment. On the other hand, fluid losses from the lower extremities fell significantly behind those observed from whole-body measurements for unstable patients. In the present study, the rapid change in knee-to-knee R_e,kkBIS within the first hour of treatment was followed by a slower change until the end of HD, regardless of the applied ultrafiltration-rate. This suggests that the fluid contribution from the legs is not only affected by the applied ultrafiltration but also by other physiological mechanisms. The latter slow changes in leg resistivity may continue up to 48 h after dialysis, as demonstrated in [24].

Relative changes in parameters extracted from kkBIS correlated well with intradialytic weight loss for stable patients. This correlation was weaker for unstable patients, likely due to medical interventions for IDH. In particular, interventions involving switching patients to the Trendelenburg position, administering parenteral fluid, or decreasing the ultrafiltration rate would generate a new fluid distribution across the body and impair the ability of BIS to correctly estimate fluid volumes [15, 25]. Pre- to post-dialysis, the mean difference in change between ΔR_e,whBIS and ΔR_e,kkBIS, normalized to weight loss, was significantly lower in stable patients compared to unstable ones (p < 0.001), Fig. 4. This further indicates that a smaller contribution from lower extremities is expected for IDH-prone patients.

In Fig. 5, we investigated the relationship between the accumulative reduction in ECF and the collected volume of the ultrafiltrate during the period of HD. For stable patients, whole-body ECF_whBIS is clearly reduced by UFV in a very linear 1:1 relationship throughout the HD treatment. For unstable patients, ECF_whBIS was further depleted by an amount of ~469.4 mL above UFV. This could be explained as some of the ECF may be shifted toward the intracellular compartment driven by osmotic gradient built up during HD. Another possible explanation is due to a BIS measurements error occurred when a great amount of fluid is removed from the trunk during HD. The thigh’s ECF_kkBIS is depleted as well by UFV; however, with a significantly higher slope for unstable patients (slope: -0.17 ± 0.05) than for stable ones (slope: -0.11 ± 0.01). If the ratio of thigh’s ECF_kkBIS to whole-body ECF_whBIS was to be considered, unstable patients are obviously characterised by significantly lesser values compared to stable one especially within the first half of the treatment. This particular parameter could potentially be used in the future to identify patients at risk of IDH early during the HD treatment.

A limitation of this study is the small number of recruited patients. Nevertheless, having an equal number of patients in each group prevented a strong bias toward any group. In addition, findings were relatively consistent among patients within groups, suggesting that increased group sizes are unlikely to lead to different conclusions. Other errors are inherent to the BIS method itself, hence may affect the accuracy of kkBIS method as well.

The difference in cross-sectional area between different body segments, the regional fluid accumulation in certain body segments, and the alterations of body fluid distribution due to HD are all known to reduce the accuracy of BIS [19, 27, 28]. Nevertheless, the question of the accuracy of both methods, especially for ECF estimation, could not be adequately addressed in this study due to the lack of comparison against gold standards. Hence, this remains a field for further research.

In summary, due to some measurement limitations imposed by the standard electrode configurations of whole-body BIS method, alternative electrode configurations (e.g. dividing the body into segments in series) were suggested. These new configurations may further impairs patient comfort and increases the complexity of the method. Here we demonstrate that a BIS method measuring from knee to knee can monitor changes in body fluid volumes with a comparable accuracy as standard whBIS even in hemodynamically unstable patients. Knee to knee BIS thus be a simplified and more comfortable alternative to whole body BIS.