Miniature system-on-chip to improve hemodialysis efficacy

Hemodialysis (HD) is a life-sustaining kidney replacement therapy that partially replaces glomerular filtration, but not tubular function of the kidney. As such, toxin removal efficiency of conventional HD decreases with molecule size and stops at the size of albumin (which must be retained in the blood). Extra difficult to remove are the so-called protein-bound uremic toxins (PBUTs), due to their strong binding with albumin. PBUTs affect a host of biological systems that contribute to the uremic syndrome, mainly inflammation and cardiovascular damage. PBUTs have also been recently linked to cognitive function decline in CKD patients. Thus, any artificial kidney, either portable, wearable or implantable, would profit from improved PBUT removal.

Research from RWTH Aachen has shown that strong high frequency electromagnetic (EM) fields can shift the dynamic equilibrium of protein-binding for toxins further to a non-bound state, thereby enabling removal of the freed toxins via the dialysis membrane. This core technology has been patented. However, producing such strong EM fields currently requires large and expensive devices, which limits present use to non-portable/non-implantable devices.