Evaluation of a newly PMMA membrane blood purification dialyzer under a continuous hemodiafiltration using harvested human plasma

Abstract

Blood purification dialyzers that use polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) mainly remove several medium and large molecular substrates by membrane adsorption; their characteristics are particularly effective for continuous blood purification therapy. Recently, a PMMA membrane dialyzer with a modified membrane surface, NF-1.0H, has been introduced to improve antithrombogenicity. In this study, NF-1.0H was compared with BG-1.0PQ and CH-1.0N with conventional PMMA membrane in terms of clearance values for urea, β₂-microglobulin, α₁-macroglobulin, and albumin, under a blood flow rate of 100mL/min; dialysate flow rate of 500 mL/h; and filtration flow rate of 1,000 mL/h. Human plasma harvested from plasma exchange treatments was used as a blood-side solution at recirculation mode and sublood-BSG was used as dialysate at a single-pass mode. The results showed that clearances of β₂-microglobrin, α₁-microglobrin, albumin and IL-6 in NF-1.0H were no significant difference among the dialyzers. Although it had higher antithrombogenicity, the membrane adsorption property of NF-1.0H was similar with other PMMA dialyzers. A filter with a longer lifetime would be required for acute blood purification in the near future.