Abstract. The individualization of dialysis treatment using a
customized dialysate composition usually requires a continuous measurement
of electrolytes and urea in blood. The current practices are spot
measurements of blood samples either with blood gas analyzers or in the
laboratory, involving considerable personnel effort. Furthermore, the
measured values are time delayed and not available in a continuous
fashion. In this paper we investigate an in-line concept for continuous
monitoring of important blood parameters such as sodium, potassium, calcium
and urea concentrations in blood serum using ion-selective electrodes. This
concept is evaluated in a preclinical study with human packed red blood
cells as a test medium over a period of 7 h. It has been shown that the
electrolytes can be well monitored. In addition, we present first
measurements with ion-sensitive field-effect transistors in a
miniaturized sensor assembly. Therefore, new low-cost electronics for such
ion-sensitive field-effect transistors have been developed.