Growth of Bacterial Clinical Isolates in Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis Fluid

Abstract

Clinical bacterial isolates (105 colony forming units/mi) were inoculated into sterile unused and used continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) fluid, incubated for 24 hours at 3SOC and observed for growth as evidenced by turbidity. The CAPD fluids also were tested for selected chemical constituent concentrations. The main differences in sterile unused and used fluids were: pH, 5.25 (unused) vs 7.60–8.62 (used); glucose, 1350–3680 vs 407–1227 mg/dl; potassium, 0 vs 2.0–4.2 mEq/l and phosphorous, 0 and 2.5–5.5 mg/dl respectively. When isolates of Candido albicans (10 strains), Enterobacter sp. (2), Escherichia coli (2), Group D Enterococci (2), Klebsiella pneumoniae (2), Proteus vulgaris (2), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (30), Pseudomonas sp. (2), Serratia marcescens (2), Staphylococcus aureus (2), S. epidermidis (2) and alphahemolytic streptococci (10) were tested against the fluids, none of the isolates grew in unused fluid but all grew in used fluid, which had been in the peritoneal cavity for as little as one and one-halfhours. Although the organisms did not grow in unused fluid, they were still viable at their original concentrations as deterrnined by quantitative subcultures.