PERITONEAL TRANSPORT AND EPO

To evaluate the effect of partial anemia correction with EPO on perito neal transport kinetics, Jive peritoneal dialysis patients were invest igated with two 6-hour single-dwell studies with 3.86% solution-one be fore and one after partial correction. Three patients were in clinical ly stable condition, and two patients had severe loss of ultrafiltrati on capacity (UFC). Intraperitoneal dialysate volumes were calculated f rom the dilution of the tracer (I-131-albumin) with a correction appli ed for its elimination from the peritoneal cavity (K-E, ml/min). The d iffusive mass transport coefficients (K-BD, ml/min)for glucose, creati nine and urea were calculated during a period of dialysate isovolemia, using aqueous solute concentrations corrected for plasma protein conc entration. Despite the increase in hemoglobin from 80+/-7 to 98+/-11 g /l, no significant differences were observed in intraperitoneal dialys ate volume over time curves, net ultrafiltration, fluid reabsorption r ate, K-E, or K-BD for glucose, urea or creatinine before and after par tial correction of anemia with EPO. The two patients with UFC loss did not show any sign of improvement. We conclude that the effect of anem ia correction with EPO on fluid and solute transport kinetics during p eritoneal dialysis is of no major importance for the clinical manageme nt of peritoneal dialysis patients.