1. Morphological Characterization of the Polyflux 210H Hemodialysis Filter Pores.
- Author
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Hedayat, A., Szpunar, J., Kumar, N. A. P. Kiran, Peace, R., Elmoselhi, H., and Shoker, A.
- Subjects
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FILTERS & filtration , *HEMODIALYSIS equipment , *HEMODIALYSIS , *RESEARCH funding , *SCANNING electron microscopy - Abstract
Background. Morphological characterization of hemodialysis membranes is necessary to improve pore design. Aim. To delineate membrane pore structure of a high flux filter, Polyflux 210H. Methods. We used a Joel JSM-6010LV scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a SU6600Hitachi field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) to characterize the pore and fibermorphology. The maximal diameters of selected uremic toxins were calculated using the macromolecular modeling Crystallographic Object- Oriented Toolkit (COOT) software. Results. The mean pore densities on the outermost and innermost surfaces of the membrane were 36.81% and 5.45%, respectively. The membrane exhibited a tortuous structure with poor connection between the inner and outer pores. The aperture's width in the inner surface ranged between 34 and 45 nm, which is 8.76-11.60 times larger than the estimated maximum diameter of β2-microglobulin (3.88 nm). Conclusion. The results suggest that the diameter size of inner pore apertures is not a limiting factor to middle molecules clearance, the extremely diminished density is. Increasing inner pore density and improving channel structure are strategies to improve clearance of middle molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
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