http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.php?event=news_print_list_item&id=701
Angela Stewart, "Vitamin D saving kidney patients", New Jersey Star
Ledger, March 24, 2005,
Link:
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1111643816249841.xml
Giving patients with chronic kidney disease an intravenous form of
vitamin D while they undergo dialysis can help them live longer, a new
study has found.
Of the more than 50,000 patients in the study who received this active
form of the vitamin, 76 percent were still alive two years after the
start of their treatment, compared with 59 percent for those who did
not get the vitamin.
"Vitamin D deficiency is incredibly common in the population we treat
with kidney failure, and we should look at the possibility that this
important vitamin may confer a survival benefit," said lead researcher
Ravi Thadhani, director of nephrology research at Massachusetts General
Hospital in Boston and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard
Medical School.
The research, funded entirely by Massachusetts General, appears in the
April issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The
articles also stress that the amount of vitamin D administered must be
closely monitored as toxicity can occur in excessive doses.
About 20 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease, and more
than 300,000 are on dialysis, according to the National Kidney
Foundation, which stresses early detection as a means of preventing
kidney failure.
Individuals with kidney disease have a difficult time converting the
vitamin D absorbed from sources such as the sun into an activated form
their bodies can use.
Vitamin D has been shown in previous studies to improve the health of
blood vessels, reduce inflammation and strengthen bones, Thadhani said.
Yet, only about half of dialysis patients receive vitamin D because the
therapy is recommended only for patients with elevated levels of
parathyroid, a hormone that controls calcium levels, Thadhani noted.
Richard Sherman, a nephrologist and professor of medicine at
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, said using
some level of vitamin D in all dialysis patients makes sense to him.
"Even if they don't fall into the category of requiring it to control
their parathyroid, it might be good," he said.
One of his patients, Yani Antouw, 62, of South Plainfield, certainly
thinks so. He was diagnosed with kidney disease in 1999 and has been
getting vitamin D infusions ever since he started dialysis a year later
at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
"I became stronger than even before those times I was sick," he said,
adding that he even felt well enough to complete his post-graduate
studies in psychology.
Thadhani and his colleagues looked at patients who started dialysis at
centers across the country between 1996 and 1999. They were followed
until 2002, with more than 37,000 of them receiving vitamin D through
an intravenous tube during their dialysis treatment.
Thadhani stressed that the survival benefit seen in the study means
doctors need to be more aggressive in treating patients who meet the
current treatment protocol. But before a broader treatment
recommendation is made, Thadhani said, there need to be randomized
clinical trials involving patients undergoing dialysis so researchers
can investigate the specific mechanism that confers the survival
benefit.
"We need to look further into ways of reducing mortality in this
high-risk population. The study sheds light on one potential
opportunity where we can make a difference," he said.
Angela Stewart writes about health care. She may be reached by e- mail
at [email hidden] or by calling (973) 392-4178.