Thursday, October 22, 2009

There are bicarbonate doubters amongst you...

Final results of last week's Renal Fellow Network poll:
There seemed to be general agreement that volume expansion with isotonic saline is definitely effective, and many individuals also selected the isotonic saline + N-acetylcysteine combination.  Interestingly, only 23% advocated using a sodium bicarbonate-based regimen (6% iv bicarb alone + 17% iv bicarb + oral NAC) despite its superiority as demonstrated in the oft-cited 2004 JAMA paper in which patients were randomized to receive either an iv bicarbonate or an iv saline regimen, and this recent 2009 AJKD meta-analysis of trials involving sodium bicarbonate for the prevention of contrast nephropathy.  However it is essential to point out that this remains a controversial topic, and hopefully further RCTs will clarify the issue.  
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2 comments:

  1. DHSOctober 22, 2009 at 9:45 PM

    Our local nephrologists do saline + IV NAC. Is this not available in your neck of the woods?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 5, 2009 at 1:26 PM

    I think the data showing that there is no difference between saline and bicarb is just as compelling...see a recent meta-analysis in cJASN.

    (http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/CJN.03120509v1)

    ReplyDelete

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