Blood volume change during isolated ultrafiltration and combined ultrafiltration-dialysis

Despite extensive study of the difference in the cardiovascular response to ultrafiltration in isolation and during haemodialysis, there is still disagreement in the literature as to whether or not there is a difference in the efficiency of plasma refilling between the two procedures. We believe that this results both from the use of inadequate techniques to measure change in blood volume and shortcomings in experimental design. We have employed novel methods in ten patients to study plasma refilling during isolated ultrafiltration and dialytic ultrafiltration. Measurement of blood pressure and heart rate confirmed the inferior cardiovascular tolerance to haemodialysis observed by others. However, no difference in the rate of plasma refilling could be demonstrated. Our observations suggest that the superior tolerance to isolated ultrafiltration is not explained by differences in vascular refilling.