Abstract
The effect of module design on in vitro clearance of newly developed highly permeable polyacrylonitrile (PAN) dialyzer was studied. This new membrane (PAN DX) has large pores to have good solute permeability and the diameter of 250μm, which is rendered wider than that of conventional membranes in order to reduce blood side pressure drop. Three effecting factors of module design, eg (1) the ratio of the length of hollow fibers (L) over the diameter of the housing (D), (2) the packing ratio of hollow fibers in the housing and (3) the effect of the spacer filaments which are dispersed among hollow fibers in order to improve the uniformity of the dialysate flow, were examined. A very high value of in vitro urea clearance (198ml/min, at QB200 and QD500ml/min) is obtained with a dialyzer of 1.5m2, which has high L/D ratio (6, 7), high packing ratio (68%) and the improved uniformity of the dialysate flow with the use of the spacer filaments.
