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Nutrition |
1 Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
2 Department of Nephrology, Belfast City Hospital, Belfast, Northern Ireland.
aAddress correspondence to this author at: Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Royal Victoria Hospital, Grosvenor Rd., Belfast BT12 6BA, Northern Ireland. Fax 044-2890234029; e-mail Grainne.Connolly{at}bll.n-i.nhs.uk.
Background: Vitamin A plays a central role in epithelial integrity and immune function. Given the risk of infection after transplantation, adequate vitamin A concentrations may be important in patients with a transplant. We assessed whether there was an association between retinol concentration and all-cause mortality in renal transplant recipients.
Methods: We recruited 379 asymptomatic renal transplant recipients between June 2000 and December 2002. We measured serum retinol at baseline and collected prospective follow-up data at a median of 1739 days.
Results: Retinol was significantly decreased in those renal transplant recipients who had died at follow-up compared with those who were still alive at follow-up. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that retinol concentration was a significant predictor of mortality. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, decreased retinol concentration remained a statistically significant predictor of all-cause mortality after adjustment for traditional cardiovascular risk factors, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and estimated glomerular filtration rate.
Conclusions: Serum retinol concentration is a significant independent predictor of all-cause mortality in renal transplantation patients. Higher retinol concentration might impart a survival advantage via an antiinflammatory or anti-infective mechanism.
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