The Effects of Calcium Carbonate/Magnesium Carbonate Combination Chewable Tablets in Comparison to Calcium Carbonate Tablets on Visual Analogue Scale Pruritus Scoring System in Hemodialysis Patients

Objectives: Pruritus is an intractable and a common symptom in chronic hemodialysis patients that can be minimized by using phosphate binders. Both calcium carbonate/magnesium carbonate (CaCO3/MgCO3) combination chewable tablets and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) tablets can be used as phosphate binders. The aim of this study is to evaluate the differences between the two phosphate binders on hemodialysis patients in terms of Visual analogue scale (VAS) scoring for pruritus Assessment (0-10) value. Methods: The randomized, controlled, open study will be conducted at renal /hemodialysis unit of King Hussein Medical Center for six weeks. Patients who will met the inclusion and will not met the exclusion criteria will enroll and randomly allocate into either interventional groups (Group I or II) or control groups (Group III or IV ).Group I & III will include hemodialysis patients who are taking proton pump inhibitors, while Group II & IV will include hemodialysis patients who are taking H2_Blockers. The collected data at the end of 6 weeks will be analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis Test followed by Mann-Whitney U-Test with Bonferroni correction (with p-value <0.05 as a level of significance) to determine whether there were significant differences between the four studied groups. Results: Calcium Carbonate/Magnesium Carbonate (CaCO3 /MgCO3 ) combination chewable tablets had at least the same activity as CaCO3 tablets in reducing the VAS scoring for pruritus assessment value.