A prospective randomized study for the treatment of bone loss with vitamin d during kidney transplantation in children and adolescents.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

The effect of treatment with alfacalcidol on post-transplantation bone loss in children and adolescents was investigated.

Their mean age at the time of transplantation was 14.5 +/- 4.0 years and the mean duration after transplantation was 48 +/- 34 months.

Who Took Part

The study group was 63 patients.

PubMed indexes the participants as children and teenagers, both men and women.

Of the 63 young patients who received renal transplant and were subjected to dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA), 30 patients had low-bone mineral density (BMD) (z-score < or = -1) and were enrolled into the study.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc could be set against what happens without it.

Parameters of bone metabolism (intact parathyroid hormone, serum osteocalcin and urinary deoxypyridinoline) and BMD were assessed before and after the study period.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Bone Density, Bone Diseases, Hydroxycholecalciferols, Kidney Diseases and Kidney Transplantation.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 63 patients.

The publication is from 2004 (American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.