Novel Combined Function Test for Patients on Peritoneal Dialysis

Peritoneal membrane function tests such as the traditional peritoneal equilibrium test (PET) aid in the assessment of various peritoneal membrane functions, and are widely used in clinical practice to guide dialysis prescription, and also to monitor the integrity of the peritoneal membrane over time. Traditional tests do however have several shortcomings such as being time consuming, complex, and having a low reliability. Also, present functional tests often provide limited information such as small solute transfer rates, which means that other functional changes go unnoticed.

The present study investigates the reliability of a novel short (60 min) test, with the potential of replacing complex and time-consuming conventional tests. The novel test provides a comprehensive assessment on both water- and solute transfer across the peritoneal membrane, including the osmotic conductance to glucose (OCG), small solute diffusive conductance (in terms of the diffusive surface to diffusion length ratio, A0/Δx), and also macromolecular transport and apparent fluid absorption. In contrast to conventional tests, multiple fill volumes may be used and results are also applicable to all glucose strengths used in conventional peritoneal dialysis.