A breath ammonia analyser for monitoring patients with end-stage renal disease on haemodialysis

Abstract

The collection of breath samples in polyvinyl fluoride bags and their subsequent analysis using colorimetric tubes is a simple, noninvasive method that enables variations in breath ammonia concentration to be measured rapidly in haemodialysis patients. Using this method, we found that the breath ammonia concentration correlated significantly with the blood urea concentration before and after haemodialysis.