Abstract

Malnutrition is a common health problem and a marker of poor prognosis among hemodialysis patients Assessment of nutritional status of these patients is necessary to prevent this problem.NGAL is an iron transporting factor which increases in the serum in acute and chronic kidney disease. The aim of our study is to assess the use of NGAL as a marker of malnutrition in patients with stage 5 CKD treated by hemodialysis. Subjects &Methods: A cross-sectional study including 80 regular hemodialysis (HD) patients (51 males and 29 females), subjected to anthropometric measurements (Dry body weight, height, body mass index(BMI), Triceps skin fold thickness(TSF), Mid - upper arm circumference (MAC), Mid- arm muscle circumference(MAMC),Mid- arm muscle area (MAMA). Serum Neutrophil Gelatinase-associated Lipocalin level, Serum albumin, Blood urea, Complete blood count, Serum electrolytes were measured. Results: In our study 100% of CKD having mild degree of malnutrition according to subjective global assessment SGA, MIS. Twenty-four hours dietary recall confirmed that most of patients were with low protein (96.2%) and calorie (68.8%) contents. NGAL serum levels were significantly (P=0.018) reduced in hemodialysis patients compared to control group and the level correlated with the severity of malnutrition. NGAL serum levels were significantly correlated with SGA (r =o,247 P =0.027) and albumin serum levels (r =0.402, P