Changes of plasma catecholamine concentration in dialysis induced hypotensive patients.

Hypotension is an important clinical problem for safe dialysis. In the present study, we divided dialysis patients into two groups according to their clinical features: stable (7 cases) and unstable (7 cases). The serum catecholamine levels were measured every hour during dialysis while monitoring the blood pressure and heart rate. At each time, the plasma noradrenaline levels were found to be significantly higher in the unstable group. However, these levels declined significantly at 3, 4 and 5 hours after the commencement of dialysis, and corresponded to the fall in blood pressure. In contrast, the plasma adrenaline levels revealed no significant difference between the two groups.