The possibility of using effluent ionized calcium to assess regional citrate anticoagulation in continuous renal replacement therapy

AIM: This study aimed to investigate whether effluent ionized calcium was an appropriate indicator to assess anticoagulant effect in continuous renal replacement therapy with regional citrate anticoagulation instead of post-filter ionized calcium. METHODS: In total, 48 paired samples of effluent fluid and post-filter blood were obtained from critically ill patients who required continuous renal replacement therapy. All samples were taken for ionized calcium measurements and were assessed by point-of-care analyzer. Correlations and agreements between two methods were performed by Pearson linear analysis and Bland-Altman analysis accordingly. RESULTS: The mean post-filter ionized calcium was 0.42 ± 0.12 mmol/L, and mean ionized calcium level of effluent fluid was 0.39 ± 0.11 mmol/L. The ionized calcium level of effluent fluid was significantly correlated with post-filter ionized calcium in all continuous renal replacement therapy patients. Bland-Altman analysis showed that the mean difference of ionized calcium between two sampling sites in all continuous renal replacement therapy patients was -0.02 mmol/L with 95% confidence interval ranging from -0.09 to 0.04 mmol/L. The significant correlations and agreements were also demonstrated in continuous veno-venous hemofiltration, continuous veno-venous hemodialysis, and continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration modalities separately. CONCLUSION: The effluent ionized calcium could be a considerable substitute for post-filter ionized calcium to monitor the validity of regional citrate anticoagulation in continuous renal replacement therapy with less blood loss.