Abstract:
Background: Effective removal of pro-inflammatory cytokines has been reported to improve overall mortality rate in sepsis-related acute kidney injury (AKI) patients. Theoretically, on-line hemodiafiltration (ol-HDF) which combines convective and diffusive solute removal in a single therapy seems to provide superior cytokine clearance over high-flux hemodialysis (HD). This prospective clinical trial was conducted to determine the percentage reduction and cytokine clearance of plasma interleukin (IL)-18 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) between ol-HDF and high-flux HD in critically ill sepsis-related AKI patients. Methods: Twenty eight sepsis-related AKI patients were included and randomized into each modality, ol-HDF (n=14) and high-flux HD (n=14). The percentage reduction and clearance of plasma IL-18 and VEGF as well as intradialytic blood pressure were determined during the first 4-hour dialysis session. Results: There were no differences between ol-HDF and high-flux HD in percentage reduction (-8.1±0.5 vs. 1.9±0.5, respectively, p=0.348), blood clearance (20.2±0.5 vs. 23.8±8.61, respectively, p=0.348) and dialysate clearance (1.4±0.5 vs. 1.6±0.5, respectively, p=0.812) of IL-18. However, both therapies could reduce VEGF levels when compared with baseline. This study was revealed that ol-HDF not only provided significantly percentage reduction of VEGF than high-flux HD (52.6±47.6 vs.11.7±0.1, p=0.000) but also provided greater plasma clearance of VEGF than high-flux HD (138.3±118.2 vs. 80.4±57.1, p=0.022). There were no significant differences in intradialytic systolic blood pressure (90.4±14.1 vs. 74.9±20.8 mmHg in ol-HDF and high-flux HD, respectively, p=0.095), diastolic blood pressure (54.0±14.6 vs. 43.0±11.9 mmHg in ol-HDF and high-flux HD, respectively, p=0.101) and mortality rate between the two treatments (35.7% in ol-HDF and 21.4% in high-flux HD). Conclusion: On-line hemodiafiltration in sepsis-related AKI could provide better removal of VEGF with comparable IL-18 cytokine clearance when compared with high-flux HD.