Aluminum...

[kporter85db]

I noticed on my labs this month that my aluminum was slightly elevated at ~17. I talked to my very competent dialysis nurse about this today. He told me it's not elevated enough to worry about.

He also made an observation that all of his NxStage/Purflow users on city water have similarly elevated aluminum levels. While all of his NxStage/Purflow users on well water have normal aluminum levels. This is significant because city water treatment plants add aluminum to water to help make it crystal clear. He suspects the Pureflow filtration PAK is not doing an adequate job of filtering out the aluminum.

He has about 20 patients that he overseas.

There has been much discussion on IHD regarding SAK's being contaminated with aluminum and I am not sure where this fits into that discussion but welcome any comments and insight into this problem.

[obsidianom]

VERY INTERESTING.
We are on well water so when we test our aluminum this Thursday I will be watching . The problem of course is complicated by the whole aluminum in dialysate issue. The whole thing is frustrating .

[Speedy1wrc]

Yes, there tends to be aluminum in city water. It is used as a coagulant to bind contaminants to allow them to settle to the bottom of the holding tanks. They are generally pretty generous when using it at the treatment facility.

 We suspected this when researching my high aluminum issues last year. However when testing the PAK sample, the aluminum was normal, so it was doing it's job. We then suspected I was ingesting it elsewhere. I was  not drinking tap water, so we suspected just using it in cooking. We thought it was OUR problem.

In research done by others we see that it comes primarily from dialysate. We found it was THEIR problem.

[Maggie and Jeff]

We have well water.

Maggies level is 15.

An AAMI shows aluminum in our well water.

An AAMI on the pak shows no aluminum.

The pak removes the aluminum.

We are running an AAMI on both the sak dialysate and the hanging bag dialysate.

I will post results on http://ihatedialysis.com/forum/index.php?topic=31141.msg482472#new

[obsidianom]

I agree the PAKs seem to work well . The problem is not the Paks it was the dialysate concentrate or Saks.

[PrimeTimer]

Anyone else being told by Fresenius (or any center for that matter) that they don't test aluminum blood levels anymore? Just curious.

[cassandra]

In the UK only a few clinics, and hops test for Aluminium regularly (as in 2x a year orso)
My clinic only checked cos I asked

[slipkid]

According to a Davita corporate letter in my possession, after the crisis exploded, Davita instructed its clinics to test for aluminum for only three months for users of SAKs (as in my case).  The period has passed and in this month's blood draws we were not given a blue topped tube to draw for aluminum.  We called the clinic and requested a tube for an aluminum test.  We were given the tube.  We intend to test for aluminum for an indefinite period.