Patent ID: 7801598

Claim:
A method for determining a dialysis patient's dry weight comprising the steps of: continuously measuring the extracellular resistance of a body segment using a plurality of electrodes, while applying a pressure to the body segment, during dialysis and graphing the ratio of R 0 /R t as a function of time, wherein R 0 is the extracellular resistance at the start of dialysis and R t is the extracellular resistance as a function of time; using a microprocessor to perform each of the following steps: flattening the graph of the ratio of R 0 /R t as a function of time; comparing the patient's normalized resistivity as a function of time (ρ N (t)) to a minimum level of normalized resistivity in healthy subjects (ρ N,H ); identifying the time at which the dry weight of the patient has been achieved when ρ N ( t )≧ρ N,H ; and calculating the patient's dry weight.