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According to studies by the National Kidney Foundation (2002), chronic kidney disease is a pathology that promotes the accumulation of toxic substances in the blood, and consequently causes the patient to experience symptoms such as muscle weakness, early fatigue, mental impairment, among others. other changes.
This is an analytical cross-sectional study with a quali-qualitative approach approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Boa Vista, capital of the state of Roraima, in the Legal Amazon, northern region of Brazil,being carried out with 184 chronic kidney patients on HD for at least 1 year. To assess muscle strength, the Medical Research Council (MRC) was Applied as an instrument and serum markers that influence the muscle strength of kidney patients such as albumin, potassium, phosphorus, PNA, hemoglobin, ferritin, calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) were also analysed.
The study included 184 hemodialysis patients, with a mean age of 54.54 ± 14.10 , of which 98 were male ( 53.26%) and 86 female (46.74%). Of these, 158 (85.87%) were Brazilian and 26 (14.13%) are of Venezuelan. In the results of the evaluation of the MRC score in patients, associated with laboratory tests, the average strength corresponded to 52.78 ± 9.77 , and it was possible to observe that of these, 68 patients have muscle weakness (36.95%) and 116 (63, 04%) preserved muscle strength , as seen in graph 1. In relation to sex, the MRC is higher in men, and in relation to nationality, muscle strength is greater in Venezuelan patients compared to Brazilians (P<0.05). According to the results obtained from the correlations, it was possible to observe statistical significance (P<0.05) and R-0.30, between MRC and age, that is, it demonstrates that the older the patient, the lower the MRC score tends to be. A significant correlation was also observed between potassium and MRC, P<0.05 and R=0.15, showing that the higher the potassium levels, the muscle strength tends to increase. Albumin also showed a significant correlation (P<0.05 and R= 0.15), as it is a nutritional marker, the higher the serum levels, the greater the patient's muscle strength. (table 1).
A significant percentage (36.96%) of the patients have muscle weakness, which is influenced by factors such as gender, nationality, age, potassium and albumin levels, which need to be better monitored in order to improve the prognosis of the renal patients.