Ergocalciferol and microcirculatory function in chronic kidney disease and concomitant vitamin d deficiency: an exploratory, double blind, randomised controlled trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Vitamin D deficiency and endothelial dysfunction are non-traditional risk factors for cardiovascular events in chronic kidney disease.

Parallel in vitro experiments were conducted to determine the effect of ergocalciferol on cultured human endothelial cells.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 38 patients were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, placebo-controlled and parallel-group 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.

Groups ran in parallel: each of the patients stayed in one arm throughout.

The primary outcome was change in microcirculatory function measured by laser Doppler flowmetry after iontophoresis of acetylcholine.

Secondary endpoints were tissue advanced glycation end products, sublingual functional capillary density and flow index as well as macrovascular parameters.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Comorbidity, Ergocalciferols, Glycation End Products, Advanced, Kidney, Microcirculation, Renal Insufficiency, Chronic and Vitamin D Deficiency.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, placebo-controlled and parallel-group study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc in 38 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 8 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2014 (PloS one), a journal based in United States.

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