Vitamin D supplements may improve kidney transplant recipients' health

Adequate vitamin D levels are important for maintaining kidney transplant recipients' health, according to a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2013 November 5-10 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA.

In the study that included 264 kidney transplant recipients, researchers led by Yoshitsugu Obi, MD, PhD (Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, in Japan) measured patients' baseline blood levels of vitamin D and examined their links with kidney function decline, rejection episodes, and death.

Vitamin D levels had an almost linear relationship with annual kidney function decline. Also, with vitamin D sufficiency (≥20 ng/mL) as the reference, vitamin D inadequacy (≥12 and <20 ng/mL) and deficiency (<12 ng/mL) showed significant dose-dependent associations with higher risks of organ rejection and death.

"Low vitamin D predicts adverse allograft outcomes, and vitamin D supplementation early after kidney transplantation may improve patient outcome," the authors concluded.