A study of oral adsorbent in chronic renal failure

In order to examine the effect on the progression of chronic renal failure (CRF), we have applied an oral adsorbent (AST-120) composed of spherical porous carbon particles to patients with chronic renal failure undergoing conservative therapy. Its effect was observed in improvement of uremic symptoms, improvement of slope in linear regression of reciprocal of serum creatinine vs. time plots and delayed initiation of hemodialysis, compared to control patients, together with reduced uremic peak 2a in HPLC analysis of serum and lower levels of beta 2 microglobulin in AST-120 group than in control. The improvements of uremic symptoms, creatinine and 2a levels were confirmed in double blind study where background of patients were evenly randomized between AST-120 and placebo groups and no improvement was observed in placebo group. The result leads us to conclude that the oral adsorbent therapy is expected as an useful therapy for retardation of progression of CRF.