%0 Journal Article
%T Low levels of vitamin C in dialysis patients is associated with decreased prealbumin and increased C-reactive protein
%A Kunying Zhang
%A Li Liu
%A Xuyang Cheng
%A Jie Dong
%A Qiuming Geng
%A Li Zuo
%J BMC Nephrology
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2369-12-18
%X In this cross-sectional study, 284 dialysis patients were recruited, including 117 MHD and 167 CAPD patients. The demographics were recorded. Plasma vitamin C was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. And we also measured body mass index (BMI, calculated as weight/height2), Kt/V, serum albumin, serum prealbumin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), ferritin, hemoglobin. The relationships between vitamin C and albumin, pre-albumin and hsCRP levels were tested by Spearman correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis.Patients were classified into three subgroups by vitamin C level according to previous recommendation [1,2] in MHD and CAPD patients respectively: group A: < 2 ug/ml (< 11.4 umol/l, deficiency), group B: 2-4 ug/ml (11.4-22.8 umol/l, insufficiency) and group C: > 4 ug/ml (> 22.8 umol/l, normal and above).Patients showed a widely distribution of plasma vitamin C levels in the total 284 dialysis patients. Vitamin C deficiency (< 2 ug/ml) was present in 95(33.45%) and insufficiency (2-4 ug/ml) in 88(30.99%). 73(25.70%) patients had plasma vitamin C levels within normal range (4-14 ug/ml) and 28(9.86%) at higher than normal levels (> 14 ug/ml). The similar proportion of different vitamin C levels was found in both MHD and CAPD groups.Plasma vitamin C level was inversely associated with hsCRP concentration (Spearman r = -0.201, P = 0.001) and positively associated with prealbumin (Spearman r = 0.268, P < 0.001), albumin levels (Spearman r = 0.161, P = 0.007). In multiple linear regression analysis, plasma vitamin C level was inversely associated with log10hsCRP (P = 0.048) and positively with prealbumin levels (P = 0.002) adjusted for gender, age, diabetes, modality of dialysis and some other confounding effects.The investigation indicates that vitamin C deficiency is common in both MHD patients and CAPD patients. Plasma vitamin C level is positively associated with serum prealbumin level and negatively associated with hsCRP level
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2369/12/18