Control of Rate of Solute Transport in Newly Developed Portable Agar Gel Blood Purification System.

Ablood purification module was developed with edible agar or Gelrite, in which activated charcoal was dispersed. Tap water (or normal saline) was boiled, and agar (or Gelrite) powder was dissolved in it. The solution was hardened with no additive or activated charcoal in a plastic cylindrical hard shell with a perforated bottom plate to assemble module A (agar only), module AC (agar with various amounts of charcoal), or module GC (Gelrite with various amounts of charcoal), respectively. The hardened gel was thrust with a plastic straw 21 times in the flow direction. Aqueous test solution was prepared for device evaluation. Bromophenol blue (BPB) concentration decreased only by 10% with module A, whereas it gradually decreased according to the amount of activated charcoal dispersed in the agar with module AC; moreover, it reached its lower limit found by direct use of the same amount of intact activated charcoal. Module GC was shown to remove creatinine continuously from bovine whole blood. A portable artificial kidney system may be constructed by combining these modules with a small hemofilter for removing excess water.