Twenty-three nondiabetic end-stage renal failure patients on hemodialysis were studied for adequacy of dialysis and nutritional status. Midweek predialysis blood urea nitrogen was 27.1 +/- 6.4 mmol/l of urea, KT/V, according to urea kinetic modelling, was 1.21 +/- 0.22 and mean normalized protein catabolic rate (nPCR) was 1.15 +/- 0.23 g/kg/day. Only 1 patient had a KT/V less than 1 and 4 patients had an nPCR less than 1 g/kg/day. No correlation was found between the different nutritional parameters. All patients had normal serum albumin. However, some of the patients could be classified as severely malnourished when parameters such as body weight (2 patients), triceps skinfold (5) and total lymphocyte count (3) were taken into account. No correlation was found between adequacy of dialysis and the different nutritional parameters. Furthermore, when patients were divided into low and normal KT/V, no differences were found in their nPCR. We conclude that a global assessment of the nutritional status is required in hemodialysis patients, and at least in patients with an acceptable KT/V, nPCR is not dependent on the adequacy of dialysis.