in dialysis the impact on the patient 39 s calcium levels should be addressed and methods to address this issue are presented herein in one embodiment the increased citrate that would enter the patient 39 s blood as a consequence of using the high citrate dialysate is offset by including additional ionized calcium and magnesium in the dialysate and optionally reducing the levels of sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate in the dialysate thus both the calcium and magnesium concentrations in the high citrate dialysate may be higher than the concentrations found in standard dialysate the calcium ion concentration in a high citrate dialysate of the present invention may be as high as about 5 meq l while the magnesium ion concentration in a high citrate dialysate of the present invention may be as high as about 2 meq l in an alternative embodiment the dialysate entering the dialyzer and contacting the patient 39 s blood contains a high level of citrate but not a high level of either calcium or magnesium when the calcium and or magnesium ion concentration in dialysate is not increased to compensate for the calcium arid magnesium binding action of citrate then the calcium ion concentration in the citrate may be as low as about 2 5 meq l while the magnesium ion concentration may be as low as about 1 0 meq l if the high citrate dialysate does not contain compensatory levels calcium and or magnesium ions then the blood leaving the dialyzer will have a high concentration of citrate and in fact may have a higher concentration of citrate than is clinically desirable due to the tendency of the citrate to bind calcium within the patient to address this consequence in one method.