Loss of Amino Acids during Hemodialysis: Effect of Oral Essential Amino Acid Supplementation

Abstract

The effect of amino acid (AA) supplementation on the loss and time course of free AA during hemodialysis was investigated. Two uremic patients on regular hemodialysis received an increasing number of essential AA tablets during the dialysis. The loss and its time course of 6 essential and 7 nonessential free AA during dialysis were assayed in the dialysate. The loss/dialysis treatment of the administered essential AA increased almost proportionally with the doses of AA tablets. For the nonessential AA, no definite relationship between doses of AA tablets and loss was observed. At all levels of supplementation, methionine was retained best: 90% of the amount present in the tablets. Threonine showed the lowest retention: 15-55%.