Vitamin E Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin E, including details on benefits, dosage, supplements, antioxidants.

Vitamin E in uremia and dialysis patients.

Galli F, Buoncristiani U, Conte C, Aisa C, Floridi A

University of Perugia, Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Applied Biochemistry and Nutritional Sciences, Via del Giochetto, 06126 Perugia, Italy. f.galli@unipg.it

Vitamin E therapy (based either on oral supplements or new dialysis methods such as vitamin E-coated hemodialysers) has been suggested to yield a better clinical outcome in hemodialysis (HD) patients than in other populations of patients. Among other factors, the presence of a modified vitamin E status might help to explain this apparently paradoxical response to vitamin E. In this study we investigated 104 regular HD patients. The results indicate that, besides having a low dietary intake, these subjects show some abnormalities in the levels and metabolism of vitamin E, such as a disproportion between plasma tocopherols and lipids, low levels of gamma-T, and CEHC accumulation. Although further studies are needed to confirm the clinical relevance of vitamin E therapy in HD, these findings might lead to recommending a higher vitamin E intake in these patients.

Published 8 March 2005 in Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1031: 348-51.
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