Kt/V

In medicine, Kt/V is a number used to quantify hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis treatment adequacy.

K – dialyzer clearance of urea
t – dialysis time
V – volume of distribution of urea, approximately equal to patient's total body water

In the context of hemodialysis, Kt/V is a pseudo-dimensionless number; it is dependent on the pre- and post-dialysis concentration (see below). It is not the product of K and t divided by V, as would be the case in a true dimensionless number. In peritoneal dialysis, it isn't dimensionless at all.

It was developed by Frank Gotch and John Sargent as a way for measuring the dose of dialysis when they analyzed the data from the National Cooperative Dialysis Study. In hemodialysis the US National Kidney Foundation Kt/V target is ≥ 1.3, so that one can be sure that the delivered dose is at least 1.2. In peritoneal dialysis the target is ≥ 1.7/week.

Despite the name, Kt/V is quite different from standardized Kt/V.

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