Abstract
Bacteria and endotoxins in the dialysate were assayed in this study. As a result, Gram-negative bacteria such as Pseudomonas were found in the dialysate. The endotoxin concentration in the dialyysate was 50 to 70pg/ml, which suggested that the patient may be exposed to 7.5 to 10.5pg of endotoxins in one session of dialysis. In addition, using endotoxin extracted from Pseudomonas in the dialysate as the antigen, long-term hemodialysis patients were studied for entotoxin antibody. Although 4 out of 21 healthy volunteers tested positive to endotoxin antibody, 42 out of 98 hemodialysis patients tested positive and many of these patients were on the high flux membrane dialyzer. These results suggested that the dialysate should be kept endotoxin free.
