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Risk factors

Hyperhomocysteinemia: a renal and cardiovascular risk factor?

One recent trial failed to show any beneficial effect of homocysteine lowering using vitamin B therapy on survival and cardiovascular events in patients with end-stage renal disease, and results of another study in patients with early-stage diabetic nephropathy actually suggested that vitamin B therapy has harmful effects. Do these findings mark the end of the era of studies investigating homocysteine lowering in patients with chronic kidney disease?

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Figure 1: Consequences of folic acid treatment.

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Correspondence to Carmine Zoccali.

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Zoccali, C., Jager, K. Hyperhomocysteinemia: a renal and cardiovascular risk factor?. Nat Rev Nephrol 6, 695–696 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneph.2010.142

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