RESUMO
Endotoxin is a component of bacterial outer membrane. Endotoxin is generally a heat-stable toxin that has the various biological activities such as pyrogenicity, macrophage and complement activation. To determine the source of endotoxin contamination in our water processing and dialysate-delivery system in Korea, endoxin was monitored in tap water at the inlet of water softening, in processed water, at the inlet of dialysate proportioner and in the dialysate at the inlet and outlet of the dialyzer. The endotoxin levels were 24.9ng/ml at the inlet of water softening and 2.3ng/ml in processed water. The removal rate of endotoxin during water processing is 90.7%. Endotoxin concentration were 3.58ng/ ml at the inlet of dialyzer and 12.4ng/ml at the outlet of dialyzer. There was no statistically significant change between the inlet of dialyzer and the outlet of dialyzer. These result suggested that a reverse-osmosis system appeared necessary for decreasing endotoxin in tap water to a certain concentration, so the level of endotoxin in the dialysate would be minimal.