Early Detection of Tubulo-Interstitial Kidney Disease in Children Using Highly Discriminating SDS-Gel Electrophoresis.

Tubulo-interstitial kidney disease is characterized by moderate proteinuria < 1 g/day of low molecular weight proteins in range of MW 10.000-50.000.

On-line Urea Monitoring during Hemodialysis: A Review.

In recent years, methods of on-line urea concentration and on-line urea clearance monitoring have been proposed for control of dialysis dose (Kt/V) and protein catabolic rate (PCR) in patients on regular dialysis therapy; these offer an alternative to the established methods of urea kinetics based on pre- and post-dialysis measurements of urea concentration. In contrast to such conventional urea kinetics, the new methods deliver results in real time and treatment parameters can be changed instantly. Three on-line measurement methods are to be distinguished: monitoring of urea concentration in ultrafiltrate, monitoring of urea concentration in dialysate (both yield Kt/V and PCR), and monitoring of urea clearance based on conductivity measurements.

Testing protein permeability of dialysis membranes using SDS-PAGE.

Background: Permeability of dialysis membranes for high molecular weight compounds should be similar to that of the glomerular membrane in order to remove uremic toxins like the human kidney does. In order to evaluate permeability of high-flux dialysis membranes SDS-PAGE is applied for examination of filtrate of dialysers during routine dialysis with different membranes.

Method: SDS-PAGE analysis is performed with silver staining method according to the modification of Melzer (5) and consecutive laser densitometry.