2014 Volume 5 Issue 1 Pages 66-71
In continuous renal replacement therapy, hemofilters gradually become clogged as a result of blood clotting and have to be replaced. In clinical use, the degree of clotting in these filters is usually determined by examining the pressure at both the filter inlet and the transmembrane. In this study, we investigated how the filters became clogged by examining the clotting distribution patterns within the hollow fibers of the membrane. For our study, we utilized hemofilters with a polysulfone membrane from two manufactures (Toray SHG-1.0 filters；Asahi Kasei Medical AEF-10 filters). Using bovine blood, we examined the blood clotting distribution patterns within the hollow fibers in two ways：the cross section clotting distribution and the lengthwise clotting distribution. The overall results for both filters showed no conclusive clotting distribution patterns in the cross section analysis, meaning the clotting patterns were varied and non-uniform. The lengthwise distribution did show some minor patterns occurring in the middle position. However, all the filters from both makers showed a lower probability of clotting taking place in the center of the inlet cross section. Additionally, all the filters also showed a higher probability of blood coagulation in the middle section of the lengthwise direction.
