Haemodialysis Treatment Monitored On-line by Ultra Violet Absorbance

Abstract: This thesis describes and evaluates an optical method utilizing ultra violet (UV) absorbance for on-line monitoring of haemodialysis treatment. Increased efficiency of haemodialysis treatment is considered to correlate to decreased morbidity and mortality when urea clearance (Kt/V) is elevated. However, further improvements have not been achieved at a higher Kt/V. The mortally rate in the haemodialysis population is still high (27% in Sweden).Urea as the clinical marker is under discussion, partly due to urea being non-toxic, but also that the uraemic syndrom is the result of a cumulative retention of innumerable involved compounds.On-line monitoring systems based on urea determination for improved dialysis efficiency have been suggested and developed in different settings over the last two decades, but have not achieved worldwide utilisation as routine clinical equipment. This thesis demonstrates that the UV-technique utilising 280, 285 and 297 nm is capable of estimating dialysis efficiency in therms of Kt/V, nutritional status in terms of protein catabolic rate (PCR), with the same characteristics as existing methods. One novel finding using UV-absorbance with high sampling rates is the on-line visualisation of the clearance process for following variations in clearance caused by clinical events and disturbances as well as during and after adjustments. The fact that the UV-absorbance technique does not measure urea directly but has high correlation to several other both UV-absorbing and not-absorbing solutes makes it suitable to reflect a more overall solute retention process. Finally, a new efficiency parameter based on the calculation of the area under UV- curve (clearance curve), is suggested to reflect the total removal of some solutes.In summary the UV-technique has the potential to be an additional tool to evaluate improvements of dialysis efficiency, which may result in decreased morbidity, longer life span and enhanced quality of life for the haemodialysis patients.