Trace elements in hemodialysis patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis


Hemodialysis patients are at risk for deficiency of essential trace elements and excess of toxic trace elements, both of which can affect health. We conducted a systematic review to summarize existing literature on trace element status in hemodialysis patients.

Methods: All studies which reported relevant data for chronic hemodialysis patients and a healthy control population were eligible, regardless of language or publication status.

We included studies which measured at least one of the following elements in whole blood, serum, or plasma: antimony, arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, fluorine, iodine, lead, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, selenium, tellurium, thallium, vanadium, and zinc. We calculated differences between hemodialysis patients and controls using the differences in mean trace element level, divided by the pooled standard deviation.

Results: We identified 128 eligible studies.

Available data suggested that levels of cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, and vanadium were higher and that levels of selenium, zinc and manganese were lower in hemodialysis patients, compared with controls. Pooled standard mean differences exceeded 0.8 standard deviation units (a large difference) higher than controls for cadmium, chromium, vanadium, and lower than controls for selenium, zinc, and manganese.

No studies reported data on antimony, iodine, tellurium, and thallium concentrations.

Conclusions: Average blood levels of biologically important trace elements were substantially different in hemodialysis patients, compared with healthy controls. Since both deficiency and excess of trace elements are potentially harmful yet amenable to therapy, the hypothesis that trace element status influences the risk of adverse clinical outcomes is worthy of investigation.

Author: Marcello Tonelli, Natasha Wiebe, Brenda Hemmelgarn, Scott Klarenbach, Catherine Field, Braden Manns, Ravi Thadhani, John Gill and Alberta Kidney Disease Network
Credits/Source: BMC Medicine 2009, 7:25



Published on: 2009-05-19

Copyright by the authors listed above - made available via BioMedCentral (Open Access). Please make sure to read our disclaimer prior to contacting 7thSpace Interactive. To contact our editors, visit our online helpdesk. If you wish submit your own press release, click here.

Social Bookmarking
RETWEET This! | Digg this! | Post to del.icio.us | Post to Furl | Add to Netscape | Add to Yahoo! | Rojo



Comments Page 0 of 0
There are currently 0 comments to display.

 


+ Add New Comment


Custom Search

Username
Password





© 2010 7thSpace Interactive
All Rights Reserved - About | Disclaimer | Helpdesk
There are currently 17275 people browsing 7thSpace