Abstract:
In order to optimize the renal replacement therapies many researches have been going on for many years. The tendency for dialysis therapy is towards high flux hemodialysis in the last few years. For understanding the behavior of newly designed hollow fibers under high flux dialysis condition, new experiments should be designed. Experiments are designed to study the stability of the two different membranes, polysulfone and polyamide, from high flux dialyzers. Hemodialysis sessions were performed on a group of patients with dialysis ages less than two years and without any other accompanying disease. Microscopical studies performed on virgin and used dialysis membranes showed morphological changes during dialysis session. Mechanical tests revealed the differences in the mechanical properties of virgin and used membranes. The change in the degree of crystallinity of the polysulfone and polyamide membranes during dialysis was observed under X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). It was found that dialysis increases the crystallinity. This issue is very important for dialysis centers performing reuse procedures for dialysis centers, because any damage to dialysis membranes would cause very serious clinical complications. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) studies showed structural changes resulted by dialysis. Unlike the other analytical techniques used, the capacity of FTIR did not give enough information. The data obtained in the course of this study showed that high flux dialysis sessions cause irreversible structural changes, which may result in clinical complications during reuse of dialyzers.|Keywords: Hemodialysis, high flux, polysulfone, polyamide, stability.
