Hemoglobin Oxygen Affinity and Acid-Base Status in Blood of Chronic Hemodialysis Patients

It has been demonstrated that in critically ill patients less dialysis-induced morbidity and hemodynamic instability occured with bicarbonate-dialysis compared to acetate-dialysis (Graefe et al., 1978; Scribner, 1979; Vincent et al., 1982). However, the advantages of using bicarbonate dialysate in stable outpatient chronic dialysis patients has been the subject of debate (Man et al., 1982; Mehta et al., 1983; Hakim et al, 1985). The recent introduction of a new bicarbonate dialysate preparation that can be used in central delivery systems makes bicarbonate-dialysis affordable in outpatient dialysis centers. Since previous studies on the influence of hemodialysis on the blood oxygen dissociation curve (ODC) showed contradictory results (Cannella et al., 1982; Soliani et al., 1990), we investigated the oxygen affinity and the acid-base status of blood under the conditions of acetate-and bicarbonate-hemodialysis in stable chronic dialysis patients.