A high incidence (40%) of cardiac arrhythmias was found in patients while on dialysis. This incidence was significantly higher than on nondialysis days. A comparison study of patients with significant cardiac arrhythmia and patients with cardiac arrhythmia was made. There was no difference in the echocardiogram, total body potassium, plasma renin activity, aldosterone, catecholamines, serum sodium, potassium and calcium between the two groups. Significant alkalinization occurred in all patients at the end of dialysis. Blood levels of total PTH and C peptide were higher in the arrhythmic patients versus the nonarrhythmic patients. No explanation was found as to why patients developed arrhythmias or what differentiated the two groups.

Men worked on a treadmill for periods of 5, 5, 10, 10, 10 and 10 min, stopping for 2 min between work periods to be weighed. Finger and mean skin temperatures decreased at the beginning of work (10 mets). When room temperature was 25 C vasodilation occurred in the finger in the third work period as gastrocnemius muscle and femoral vein temperatures reached maximal values. Temperatures of skin and saphenous vein blood rose rapidly as the men reclined during the rest periods and decreased when work was resumed, coinciding with changes of femoral temperature in the opposite directions. These rapid shifts in temperature indicate that during the rest periods the proportion of blood coming from the skin into the trunk of the femoral was greater than during the work periods. The onset of sweating, the rate of its increase in the early stages of these work experiments, and its decline in recovery more nearly paralleled corresponding changes in femoral temperature than any of the other temperatures measured. exercise; femoral vein temperature; temperature regulation; saphenous vein temperature; skin temperature Submitted on October 5, 1964

Plasma B₁₂, folate, B₆ and thiamine, and red blood cell folate, thiamine and niacin levels were monitored for a period of 6 months in 15 clinically stable, chronic hemodialysis patients who were not supplemented with the water-soluble vitamins. Microbiological assays were used to determine the blood levels of the water-soluble vitamins. Over the period of 6 months, none of the patients had plasma or red cell vitamin levels below the normal range. No appreciable changes were observed in the plasma and red blood cell vitamin levels before and after dialysis in 5 patients. This study showed that chronic hemodialysis patients are able to maintain normal plasma and red cell levels of some water-soluble vitamins without daily supplementation.

No abstract

No abstract