On-line Verification of Hemodialysis Water Quality
Abstract: Renal diseases are an increasing problem worldwide and when kidney transplantation is not possible, dialysis treatment is the solution. An increasing number of patients choose to perform their dialysis treatment at home by implementing the dialysis machine and a water purification system in current electric and water supply, so called home hemodialysis. The quality of the water used for the preparation of dialysis fluid is essential due to the very close contact with the patient’s blood. However, today’s methods for verification of water quality are time consuming, non-frequently performed and costly. The aims of this thesis were to investigate if an on-line, accurate and specific method for water quality verification is possible, without limitations as sample preparation, expensive and massive apparatus and professional skills needed for monitoring. Attention has been paid to the requirements and expectations of such a device and an extensive literature study of potential techniques is presented. Some promising examples are biosensor applications for detection of bacteria and endotoxins, micromachined total organic carbon analyzers, amperometric chlorine analysers and flow cytometers. Subsequent to this, an experimental investigation was performed to examine whether bacterial detection by their autofluorescence can be performed using a FACSCanto II flow cytometer. On the basis of the experimental results, no such autofluorescence could be detected. However, the high speed technique of flow cytometry could be further refined to replace the old fashioned conventional techniques for microbiological quantification.
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