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Key Points
- Nutritional vitamin D deficiency is widespread among hemodialysis patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism, and few receive nutritional vitamin D supplementation.
- At baseline, 79.7% had nutritional vitamin D insufficiency, 38.9% were vitamin D deficient, and 1.3% had profound deficiency.
- Nutritional vitamin D insufficient patients were more likely to be female, older, and black, and less likely to be Hispanic.
Nutritional vitamin D deficiency is widespread among hemodialysis (HD) patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism, and few receive nutritional vitamin D supplementation, a study found.
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The study included 3,793 HD patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism participating in the Evaluation of Cinacalcet HCl Therapy to Lower Cardiovascular Events (EVOLVE) study.
Of these patients, 3,024 (79.7%) had nutritional vitamin D insufficiency at baseline (defined as a serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25-OHD] level below 30 ng/mL); 1,476 (38.9%) were vitamin D deficient (25-OHD levels less than 15 ng/mL). Forty-nine patients (1.3%) had profound deficiency (25-OHD less than 5 ng/mL).
At baseline, 2,212 subjects (58.3%) were being treated with active vitamin D sterols. Only 118 patients (3%) were receiving nutritional vitamin D supplementation with ergocalciferol or cholecalciferol. Of these patients, 71 (60.2%) were vitamin D insufficient at baseline and 59 (50%) were also receiving active vitamin D sterols.
Nutritional vitamin D insufficient patients were more likely to be female, older, and black, and less likely to be Hispanic, the investigators reported.
Moreover, nutritional vitamin D deficiency affects a greater proportion of patients treated with active vitamin D sterols compared with those who are not.
