β2-MICROGLOBULIN SERUM LEVELS IN PATIENTS ON LONG TERM DIALYSIS

Recently several workers have described a β2-microglobulin-containing amyloid in patients on chronic hemodialysis. We have demonstrated that, in terms of the degree of elevation and the absence of correlation with duration of dialysis, the β2-microglobulin serum levels of CAPD patients are comparable to those on hemodialysis. Thus all dialysis patients seem to bear an increasing risk of tissue deposition of β2-microglobulin in the form of the newly-described amyloid, and this risk appears to be independent of the mode and duration of dialysis. Recently β2-microglobulin has aroused great interest because of its identification as the amyloid protein (1,2) found From the Division of Nephrology