Aluminum removal by hemodialysis

Aluminum kinetics were studied in 24 patients on chronic hemodialysis. All patients had elevated predialytic serum concentrations of aluminum (mean, 3.44 mumoles/liter), which correlated significantly with the ingestion of aluminum hydroxide (P less than 0.01). Simultaneous measurements of aluminum in plasma and ultrafiltrate revealed an ultrafiltrability of about 20% of total plasma aluminum, thus suggesting that 80% of aluminum is protein bound. When a dialysate with a very low aluminum content (varying from 0.1 to 0.3 mumoles/liter) was used, mean values across the dialyzer were 3.20 and 2.67 mumoles/liter, respectively, showing a significant decrease of plasma aluminum during dialyzer passage (P less than 0.0001). It could be shown that dialysance of aluminum depends on the concentration gradient between the free diffusible plasma aluminum and the dialysate aluminum concentration. After 6 hours of dialysis, plasma aluminum concentrations were significantly lower than were predialysis values (P less than 0.0001). We conclude that a negative aluminum balance during hemodialysis can be assumed as long as the aluminum concentration of free diffusible plasma aluminum lies above the aluminum concentration of the dialysate.