Abstract
This study has evaluated the influence of peritoneal blood flow and plasma protein concentration on the peritoneal ultrafiltration rate. In vitro and in vivo experiments were done to assess the effective peritoneal capillary blood flow.
Based on the assumption that one can compare the behavior of an hollow fiber hemofilter with the peritoneal dialysis system, we have compared the opera tional characteristics of the two systems. After demonstrating that there was filtration pressure equilibrium in the filter, the plasma protein concentration was measured in the venous site of the filter at different applied transmembrane pressures. The nomogram, so obtained, was used to calculate the plasma-protein concentration in the blood leaving the peritoneal capillary during exchanges with an established glucose concentration (and therefore at a given transmembrane pressure), and to calculate the filtration fraction.
Once that fraction had been calculated, based on the value of the ultrafiltration rate, one can calculate the importance of the plasma flow and then the blood flow. In this study the filtration fraction ranged between 45 and 55% and the blood flow ranged between 21 and 27 ml/min. It was concluded that the blood flow may be very low and hence may limit ultrafiltration.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.