Abstract
We investigated cell-mediated immunity in dialysis patients. The data indicated that dialysis patients have lymphopenia, decreased reaction of PPD and decreased blastoid formation of PHA.
PPD reaction and T-cell function decreased in the early stage of dialysis and improved in the stage of maintenance dialysis, then subsequently decreased again in the long-term stage of dialysis.
These data suggests that patiens on dialysis have decreased immunologic host defense in the early and long-term stages of dialysis.