The effect of far-infrared therapy on the peritoneal membrane transport characteristics of uremic patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis: An open-prospective proof-of-concept study

Long-term peritoneal dialysis (PD) can lead to detrimental changes in peritoneal membrane function, which may be related to the accumulation of glucose degradation products. A pre-vious study demonstrated that 6 months of far-infrared (FIR) therapy may decrease glucose degradation products in PD dialysate. Due to limited literature on this matter, this study aims to investi-gate the effect of FIR therapy on the peritoneal membrane transport characteristics of PD patients. Patients were grouped according to baseline peritoneal transport status: lower transporters (low and low-average) and higher transporters (high-average and high). Both groups underwent 40 min of FIR therapy twice daily for 1 year. In lower transporters, FIR therapy increased weekly dialysate creatinine clearance (6.91 L/wk/1.73 m²; p = 0.04) and D/P creatinine (0.05; p = 0.01). In higher trans-porters, FIR therapy decreased D/P creatinine (−0.05; p = 0.01) and increased D/D0 glucose (0.05; p = 0.006). Fifty percent of high transporter patients shifted to high-average status after FIR therapy. FIR therapy may decrease D/P creatinine for patients in the higher transporter group and cause high transporters to shift to high-average status, which suggests the potential of FIR therapy in improving peritoneal membrane function in PD patients.