Leukopenia with different regenerated haemodialysis membranes.

The white blood cell count (WBC) decreases during haemodialysis and it was investigated as a function of different dialysis membranes. Each of them was used four times, applying different sterilization methods. Twelve chronic haemodialysis patients were studied and dialysed with cuprophan and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) membranes. Cuprophan was studied by a dry sterilization method and after perchloric acid and formalin treatment. PAN was studied with dry sterilization and after perchloric acid. As it has been shown, cuprophan membranes cause significantly more marked neutropenia than PAN. No significant difference was seen in pO2, pH, pCO2 and bicarbonate between dialysers used four times. The results indicate differences in biocompatibility between cuprophan and PAN membranes, independent of the sterilization method employed.