Elution of bisphenol-A from hemodialyzers consisting of polycarbonate and polysulfone resins

This study deals with bisphenol‐A (BPA) analysis of the BPA‐derived polymer pellets, polycarbonate (PC) and polysulfone (PS), and in the hemodialyzer casings made of PC, and the leaching of BPA from commercially available hemodialyzers into water and bovine serum, using HPLC, GC‐MS, and LC‐MS analyses, and NMR spectroscopy. Total contents of BPA in polymer pellets of each resin were 4.0 and 7.2 μg/g (PC) and 34.5 μg/g (PS). Amounts of BPA released from hemodialyzer PC casings lacking PS hollow‐fiber were 11.7 and 13.7 ng/casing by water extraction, and 296 and 345 ng/casing by methanol extraction. On the other hand, BPA of 3.78 to 141.8 ng/module was recovered using water circulation of hemodialyzers, and 140.7 to 2,090 ng/module was detected when bovine serum was used as a circulation solvent. The elution profiles using various concentrations of ethanol/water mixtures indicated that a 17.2% (v/v) ethanol solution rather than bovine serum can be used as an extraction solvent, where a similar amount of BPA as with bovine serum circulation was eluted from the hemodialyzer. Thus, this solvent may be useful for evaluating BPA elution from hemodialyers under similar conditions to medical use. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res (Appl Biomater) 58: 209–215, 2001