Basic study ot the implantable artificial kidney

血液透析已经成为抢救严重肾功能衰竭患者的一种既定疗法。然而，它限制了患者的时间，增加了医疗费用。开发完全植入体内的人工肾有望突破目前的现状。在这项研究中，提出了一种连续血液水力旋流离心分离方法，用于植入性人工肾的开发。我们开发了三种类型的水力旋流器来研究血液浓度。结果表明，尽管两种旋流器的红细胞浓度没有明显差异，但在旋流器中心观察到了一根红柱。这一柱状物表明，红细胞是通过水力旋流器中的二次旋涡积累起来的。有必要用粒子图像测速仪和高速摄像机进行进一步的研究，以证明红细胞内存在浓集的可能性。

Hemodialysis has been already an established therapy to rescue patients with severe renal failure. However, it restricts time of patients and increases medical expenses. Development of the artificial kidney for completely embedding in the body is expected to break through the present status. In this study, a continuous blood hydrocyclone centrifugal separation method for the development of an implantable artificial kidney was proposed. We developed three types of hydrocyclones to investigate concentration of blood. As a result, despite that no significant difference was seen in concentration of red blood cell (RBC), a red pillar was observed in the center of the hydrocyclone. This pillar was suggested that the RBC was accumulated by the secondary vortex in the hydrocyclone. Further study to observe with a particle image velocimetry and the high speed video camera is necessary to demonstrate a possibility of concentration in the RBC.