FRIDAY, March 5 (HealthDay News) -- Kidney disease patients who have low blood levels of the protein albumin and who begin hemodialysis during the winter season are almost certain to develop vitamin D deficiency, according to a study in the March 1 issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Ishir Bhan, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues analyzed data on 908 hemodialysis patients from the Accelerated Mortality on Renal Replacement cohort for whom 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels were available. The researchers developed predictive models for vitamin D deficiency using routinely collected clinical and demographic data from a random sample of 60 percent of the patients, than validated the model in the other 40 percent.
The researchers found that 79 percent of the development set was deficient in vitamin D with the leading predictors being African-American race, female sex, winter season, and low blood albumin (hypoalbuminemia). In the validation set, having hypoalbuminemia and beginning dialysis in the winter season increased vitamin D deficiency risk in African-American women from 90 to 100 percent, in African-American men from 85 to 100 percent, in Caucasian women from 82 to 94 percent, and in Caucasian men from 66 to 92 percent.
"Deficiency of 25-hydroxyvitamin D is nearly universal among patients with hypoalbuminemia initiating chronic hemodialysis in winter," the authors write.
One study author reported receiving research support from Abbott Laboratories.
Abstract
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