The first time I heard about Dialysis, I assumed it filtered everything, not just urea, and sugar, giving patients better then new blood. I talked to a nurse friend of mine last night and she said that really is all it is used for now. I suggest that new ways are explored to filter out blood infections, viruses, cancers, and anything else that can kill you. I checked online, and most of the websites said the same thing. There was one link about fighting bacteria, but I couldn't open the link because it required a paid subscription. Last thing, I read about patients with AIDs, have to take medication to keep their white blood cell count up, a therapy like this could help curb the overall amount of virus in the blood stream.
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While we are at filtering body fluids. I understand that there is a lymphatic system that runs through the body, I'm sure that too could benefit from a good flushing out of diseases. -Not through chiropractic means either. I saw some flyer for a office that did just that through deep massage.
It is very hard to filter out viruses because of their extremely small size. Also, HIV is a retrovirus and can remain in a latent state inside cells for years. Bacteria and parasites are larger and could be filtered.
I was thinking, why not bait the virus or anything else too small to filter out of the blood stream then neutralize it w/ UV light, and/or prevent any from returning to the body? Simulate something the virus would be attracted to then zap it. While the blood is outside the body couldn't you also expose it to radiation to kill viruses and bacteria? This would reduce the exposure and to healthy organs in your body. Perhaps blood can withstand exposure to radiation better then the rest of the body. You could also use the line returning blood to administer medicine. Cound it be used to filter cancer too?
Unfortunately, exposing blood to radiation would probably be a Very Bad Thing, because you'd clobber the white blood cells. Cancer can't be filtered out like that - it's an internal property of the cell - but certain carcinogens might be. I can't think of any off the top of my head that hang around in the blood stream long enough for filtering to be useful, though.
The idea is that blood can be purified, not just regulated like in regular dialysis. Radiation is being used to treat cancer, I was thinking, instead of radiating all of the blood, strain out viral, or cancerous material and then radiate them. It wouldn't have to be x-rays either, but UV light.
Another possible way to do this is with Molecular Filters made of space age materials similar to the technology being researched to develop microscopic transistors (sub-micron scale, whichever is smaller) -when in a centrifuge could separate healthy blood cells, from viruses, microbes, cancers, bacteria, and anything else that shouldn't be there. This would be another stage in the blood treatment process, along with the dialysis. Companies like, Dow, HGS, or some other big biotech company could develop something like this within a few years I'm sure. Last thing, I've heard that blood infections, carry a 50% survivability rate, I don't see a reason why this couldn't be used for that. I would also suggest that a means of flushing the circulator system be developed. I know the problem isn't just the blood, and the viens, and arteries, may be infected, or contributing to the illness. This would be a new IV, system. Not just plasma, or sugar water, but something that can clean out the circulatory system of plaque, and disease.