Abstract
The adhesions of blood cells to the surface of 10 kinds of dialysis, 2 of hemofiltration and 3 of plasma separation membranes and 3 kinds of activated charcoal were evaluated with the scanning electron microscopic (SEM) technique. I also examined the factors which affected the adherence. White blood cell (WBC) mainly adhered to the arterial side of cellulosic dialysis membrane, while membrane materials, sterilization methods, designs of dialyser, anticoagulants, blood flow rate and modes of treatment (dialysis or filtration) showed remarkable effects on the characteristics of WBC adhesion. There was no relationship between the trapping of WBC and the transient leucopenia during hemodialysis. Although platelet adhered almost equally throughout the hollow fiber (HF), and those factors minimumly affected the degree of adherence, among them, antiplatelet drug significantly reduced the platelet adhesion. Microdensitometric analysis applied to the SEM film of HF could quantitatively represent the distribution and the amount of WBC adhesion. About the adherence to the activated charcoal, platelet and WBC mainly adhered to the irregular surface of the charcoal, and not the coating material but the anticoagulation determined the amount of adhesion. Differing from the adhered pattern to dialysis membrane, a considerable number of red blood cell and platelet adhered to the venousside of plasma separation membrane. These results indicate that SEM analysis of adhered blood cells on the materials for blood purification provides us useful informations about the blood compatibility.
