A New Method of Urea Removal Using Urease and Expanded Polytetrafluoroethylene Membrane

摘要

ABSTRACTA new method for urea removal using a gas membrane is introduced along with some preliminary results. The membrane used was expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (E‐PTFE) which is highly permeable to gaseous substances, while at the same time it is highly resistant to water permeation.Inin vitroexperiments using 10 mmol/L ammonia solution it was revealed that the single‐pass reduction rate was approximately 95 at 30°C at a flow rate of 200 ml/min.In animal experiments using four dogs, the extraction rate of urea was 40.4 ± 4.4 after four hours of dialysis using 5 L dialysate. However, elevation of blood ammonia was observed in all dogs tested.Removal of ammonia by means of a gas membrane is considered to be feasible and has the possibility of being used for maintenance hemodialysis in combination with urease and cha