Baxter's CT190G dialyzers have a red and a blue cap, as well as an arrow diagramming the direction for the blood flow. My silly question is: Do the venous and arterial blood tubing necessarily have to correspond to the red and blue caps. Or is this just a convenient way to make the priming process idiot-proof.

Jack,

It all depends on who's theory you believe. Some believe that protiens are deposited on the membrane like fish scales (one overlapping the other) so the direction of flow should be the same each time to reduce turbulance which could promote clotting. Others feel that the protiens are distributed smoothly and even if they were like scales, the turbulance would be beneficial since it would keep the blood mixed so that fresh blood is exposed to the membrane more often.


I have not seen any studies on this but my experience has been that there is little if any difference.

quote:

Originally posted by jack:
Baxter's CT190G dialyzers have a red and a blue cap, as well as an arrow diagramming the direction for the blood flow. My silly question is: Do the venous and arterial blood tubing necessarily have to correspond to the red and blue caps. Or is this just a convenient way to make the priming process idiot-proof.

Think of a fibre in a dialyser as a straw. It doesn't matter which end is up or down it makes no difference. Now I am refering to a new dialyser not one that is re-used. I believe each end is different in colour simply to prevent the possibility of connecting the dialyser in a co-currant configuration by accident.