Feasibility of a quality assurance programme of bedside blood glucose testing in a hospital setting: 7 years' experience.

Aims: Description of the long-term use of a quality assurance (QA) programme for bedside capillary blood glucose (CBG) testing in a general hospital.

Methods: The main points of the programme were selection of instrumentation using a standardized testing procedure, design and implementation of a quality control (QC) procedure, and training and motivation of nurses. The QC procedures consisted of a daily aqueous control and a weekly split-sample control (a measurement on a capillary blood sample using the glucose meter and on a simultaneously drawn venous sample with the laboratory analyser).

On-line haemodiafiltration. Remarkable removal of beta2-microglobulin. Long-term clinical observations.

Background: The accumulation of beta2-microglobulin (beta2-M) in long-term dialysis patients may lead to dialysis amyloidosis. In this respect, the removal with different modes of on-line haemodiafiltration (HDF) of beta2-M was studied. Long-term clinical observations in patients with more than 10 years of dialysis, treated mainly with biocompatible and highly permeable membranes and in the last years with on-line HDF are also reported.

Remarkable removal of beta-2-microglobulin by on-line hemodiafiltration.

Unlabelled: Eight chronic, anuric hemodialysis patients were randomly treated with a high-flux polysulphone dialyzer (F80), using 6 different modes: conventional bicarbonate hemodialysis (HD), hemodiafiltration (HDF) with a replacement solution at 40, 60, 80 or 100 ml/min in postdilution and 80 ml/min in predilution. The differences in beta 2-microglobulin (beta 2M) reduction ratio and clearance were evaluated statistically by analysis of variance (ANOVA). Both studies revealed no significant difference between HD and HDF40 in postdilution, but an increasing significant difference from HDF60 to HDF100 in postdilution and with HDF80 in predilution.