Do high-flux dialysis membranes affect renal dyslipidemia?

High-flux hemodialysis has been reported to attenuate renal dyslipidemia. T o evaluate the contribution of dialysis membrane composition per se, we com pared the impact on the lipoprotein profile of hemodialysis (HD) with a con ventional cellulose dialysis membrane with that of a synthetic high-flux di alysis membrane in standard hemodialysis mode. Forty-two patients (24 men, 18 women; mean age, 69 years; range, 39-85 years) on maintenance HD with ce llulosic dialysis membranes were randomized and stratified for diabetes mel litus to 12 weeks of HD treatment with either a cellulose acetate (CA; n = 23) or polyacrylonitrile (AN69; n = 19) membrane. HD was performed in a con ventional low-flux standard HD mode 4-6 hours/session. Plasma levels of lip ids (TC, TG), apolipoproteins (A-I, B, C-III, E), lipoprotein (a) (Ip(a)), and individual apoA and apoB containing lipoproteins (LP-A-I, LP-A-I:A-II, LP-B, LP-Bc) were determined. At baseline, the AN69 group had slightly high er plasma concentrations of apoC-III and C-III/HS, but there were no other differences at entry in study variables between the treatment groups. Twelv e week treatment with an AN69 membrane did not result in any significant ch anges in lipoprotein profile compared with treatment with a cellulose aceta te membrane. HD with AN69 dialysis membranes in the conventional low-flux s tandard hemodialysis mode does not affect the lipoprotein profile.