PHILADELPHIA—Adequate doses of calcifediol can correct 25-hydroxyvitamin D deficiency and improve malnutrition-inflammation status in hemodialysis (HD) patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism (SHPT), researchers reported at Kidney Week 2011.

In a prospective study of 27 HD patients with SHPT and low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels (below 20 ng/mL), Raquel Ojeda, MD, and colleagues at Hospital Universitario Reina Sofia in Córdoba, Spain, found that treatment with calcifediol (mean dose 266 mcg/week) for an average of three months resulted in a significant decrease in parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels (from 318 pg/mL prior to treatment to 229.6 pg/mL after treatment). All patients had normalization of 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels (above 30 ng/mL), which was associated with a significant a natural logarithm decrease in C-reactive protein, a marker of systemic inflammation, from 2.15 to 1.52, a significant rise in albumin levels from 3.2 to 3.4 g/dL, and a significant decrease in paricalcitol requirements (from 1.78 to 0.52 mcg/week).