[Doppler echocardiography of left ventricular filling in chronic renal insufficiency: before and after dialysis].

Hemodialysis can achieve loss of body water, variable in the different water compartments, and that depends on the dry weight and the composition of the dialysate. We have studied echocardio-Doppler findings in 26 end stage renal disease patients (from 26 to 84 years), in whom 25 have hypertension, in sinusal rythm and ejection fraction above 55%. When they achieved a 3.52% decrease in body weight, without modification of heart rate and decrease in median arterial pression, these patients exhibited decrease in auricular (p = 0.001) and ventricular diameter both in systole and diastole (p = 0.001), in maximum velocity of E wave (p = 0.001) and E/A ratio. There was no significant reduction of maximum velocity of A wave, but 4 differents patterns of E/A ratio were demonstrated. The main determinant factor of these patterns was found to be the age of the patient.