Paradoxes in peritoneal transport of small solutes.

Analysis of kinetic studies of peritoneal solute transport involves the need for discrimination between three transport components: diffusion, convective transport, and peritoneal absorption. The description of convective transport in standard clinical conditions of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), as well as in isochratic measurements, has met some problems related to the paradoxical and often anomalous values of sieving coefficient, a parameter that characterizes solute drag with the flow of ultrafiltrate. A possible explanation of some of these results is the time dependence of the transport parameters, which is in contrast to their assumed steadiness. These anomalies as well as the time dependence of the transport parameters are confined more to the standard glucose-based dialysis fluid than to some alternative dialysis fluids. Furthermore, the most striking anomalies have been found for small electrolytes as well as for osmotic agents, which are applied in high, unphysiological concentrations. These solutes may be involved in the transport between intracellular and extracellular compartments within the peritoneal membrane, which phenomena are not included in the current modeling.