Vitamin D is a prohormone obtained through diet, supplementation, or sun exposure. Once
absorbed, this nutritional vitamin D undergoes a two-step reaction in the liver and in the
kidney to become the active hormone, calcitriol. Besides the kidney, many other body tissues
are capable of local vitamin D activation. This local tissue activity is important for
maintenance of health and relies on adequate levels of nutritional vitamin D. Not only are
dialysis patients deficient in calcitriol due to kidney failure, but they are also deficiency
in nutritional vitamin D. Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with higher rates of
death, heart and blood vessel disease, osteoporosis, falls, cancer, and autoimmune diseases.
Despite this, there is a lack of randomized controlled trials (RCT) examining the effects of
nutritional vitamin D in hemodialysis (HD) patients. The investigators hypothesize that
long-term supplementation with nutritional vitamin D in HD patients improves survival and
cardiovascular outcomes. Before embarking on a large scale RCT, the investigators propose a
small pilot RCT with 20 hemodialysis patients to: i) To determine the effects of
cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) in raising blood vitamin D levels; ii) To determine the
feasibility and barriers to successful randomization and adherence to treatment protocols,
which will inform subsequent studies.
Phase:
N/A
Details
Lead Sponsor:
St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton
Collaborator:
The Physicians' Services Incorporated Foundation
Treatments:
Cholecalciferol Ergocalciferols Vitamin D Vitamins