| Theme |
Performance Evaluations for Blood Purification Devices and Characteristics of Dialysis Adequacy Indices |
| Title |
Classification and performance evaluation of blood purification devices |
| Author |
Michio Mineshima |
Department of Clinical Engineering, Tokyo Women's Medical University |
| [ Summary ] |
In order to select an optimum blood purification device such as a dialyzer for each patient, it is important for us to evaluate the performance of blood purification devices precisely and to estimate their clinical effectiveness when used for individual patients. The history of performance evaluations for blood purification devices in Japan and various associated problems with them are described in this paper. There have been two types of performance evaluations conducted using aqueous and blood solutions. At present, the classification of and performance evaluations for blood purification devices introduced by the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy in 2008 are the standard methods employed. However, It should be reviewed and revised in terms of methods to treat problems related to real blood and dialysate flow rates through the devices, proper usage of equations for evaluation of solute clearance (K) and time degradation of performance. |