Use of peritoneal dialysis in the treatment of patients with renal failure and paraproteinemia.

The effect of alterations in dwell time, dialysate dextrose concentration, and nitroprusside on immunoglobulin removal during peritoneal dialysis and a comparison of plasmapheresis versus peritoneal dialysis on immunoglobulin removal was studied. 1 h of plasmapheresis removed approximately 100 times as much IgG and 50 times as much IgM and IgA as 1 h of peritoneal dialysis. Nitroprusside added to peritoneal dialysate doubled the hourly removal rate of IgG using 1- and 8-hour cycles and increased IgA and IgM removal by 25 and 10%, respectively, using 8-hour cycles. It was estimated that peritoneal dialysis with nitroprusside added to peritoneal dialysate augments intact immunoglobulin clearance (above endogenous clearance) by approximately 10%. We hypothesized that peritoneal dialysis could significantly increase light-chain removal and thereby may be efficacious in the treatment of light chain related amyloid formation and light chain induced renal failure.