Clinical evaluation of performance, biocompatibility, and safety of vitamin E-bonded polysulfone membrane hemodialyzer compared to non-vitamin E-bonded hemodialyzer.

The vitamin E-bonded polysulfone membrane hemodialyzer (ViE™-21) was evaluated in a clinical study for regulatory submission. Seventeen patients on hemodialysis were treated with conventional high-flux hemodialyzers for 2 weeks (Pre-ViE phase) and switched to the ViE-21 for 36 sessions (ViE phase) followed by an additional 2 weeks on conventional hemodialyzers (Post-ViE phase). Reduction ratios of urea, creatinine, beta-2-microglobulin, albumin, and ultrafiltration coefficients (KUF) were measured once during the Pre-ViE phase and twice during the ViE phase.

Vitamin E as a functional and biocompatibility modifier of synthetic hemodialyzer membranes: an overview of the literature on vitamin E-modified hemodialyzer membranes.

Along with one century of history, research has provided many solutions for hemodialysis (HD) biomaterials, encompassing several generations of copolymers that have found wide application in the development of hollow-fiber dialyzer membranes. Polysulfone-based biomaterials have gained increasing consideration and are now the gold standard in the production of biocompatible hemodialyzers. However, even the highest biocompatibility now available cannot exclude that dialyzer membranes and the overall extracorporeal circulation may produce at the subclinical level immunoinflammatory reactions and thus an increased cardiovascular risk of patients on regular HD therapy.

Improved management of intradialytic hypotension (IDH) using vitamin E-bonded polysulfone membrane dialyzer.

Background: Intradialytic hypotension (IDH) is a common clinical trait in hemodialysis (HD) which is caused by poor biocompatibility of the dialyzer membrane. Aiming to improve IDH, vitamin E-bonded polysulfone dialyzer (VPS-H) was evaluated in a pilot study.

Methods: Eight IDH patients on standard HD were switched from their conventional high-flux dialyzers to VPS-H, and intradialytic blood pressure (BP) was monitored regularly for 10 months.

Analysis method and characterization of the antioxidant capacity of vitamin E-interactive polysulfone hemodialyzers.

The lipophilic antioxidant vitamin E was used as a surface modifier (or coating agent) of hollow-fiber hemodialyzer membranes with the aim of increasing their biocompatibility and preventing oxidative stress, which are the main clinical drawbacks in hemodialysis (HD) therapy. At present, the redox chemistry of vitamin E-modified dialyzers is not well characterized and there is no standard method to assess the antioxidant capacity of these biomembranes under conditions that simulate those observed during HD therapy. With this study, we developed an original online method to determine the antioxidant capacity of vitamin E-modified dialyzer membranes during circulation experiments.