Optimizing Ultrafiltration Rate Profiles for the Estimation of Blood Volume During Hemodialysis

Knowledge of a patient’s blood volume during hemodialysis is important as removing too much or too little fluid or removing it too fast has been associated with increased patient morbidity and mortality. Non-invasive absolute blood volume measurements are currently not available. We show how to estimate initial absolute blood volume from readily available relative blood volume measurements, but, in addition that blood volume estimates under present clinical practice will have high variance. We derive D-optimal ultrafiltration profiles for estimation of an individual’s initial blood volume, and demonstrate their performance by simulation.