Vitamin D helps hemodialysis patients  2008
Kidney International 74, 1070–1078 (1 October 2008) | doi:10.1038/ki.2008.343
Oral active vitamin D is associated with improved survival in hemodialysis patients
Manuel Naves-D|[iacute]|az , Daniel |[Aacute]|lvarez-Hern|[aacute]|ndez , Jutta Passlick-Deetjen , Adrian Guinsburg , Cristina Marelli , Diego Rodriguez-Puyol & Jorge B Cannata-And|[iacute]|a
Injection of active vitamin D is associated with better survival of patients receiving chronic hemodialysis. Since in many countries oral active vitamin D administration is the most common form of treatment for secondary hyperparathyroidism we determined the survival benefit of oral active vitamin D in hemodialysis patients from six Latin America countries (FME Register|[reg]| as part of the CORES study) followed for a median of 16 months. Time-dependent Cox regression models, after adjustment for potential confounders, showed that the 7,203 patients who received oral active vitamin D had significant reductions in overall, cardiovascular, infectious and neoplastic mortality compared to the 8,801 patients that had not received vitamin D. Stratified analyses found a survival advantage in the group that had received oral active vitamin D in 36 of the 37 strata studied including that with the highest levels of serum calcium, phosphorus and parathyroid hormone. The survival benefit of oral active vitamin D was seen in those patients receiving mean daily doses of less than 1|[thinsp]||[mu]|g with the highest reduction associated with the lowest dose. Our study shows that hemodialysis patients receiving oral active vitamin D had a survival advantage inversely related to the vitamin dose. Kidney International (2008) 74, 1070–1078; doi:10.1038/ki.2008.343; published online 16 July 2008