Effects of Vitamin D Receptor Activation and Dietary Sodium Restriction on Residual Albuminuria in CKD: The ViRTUE-CKD Trial

What is it about?

Please visit http://tiny.cc/cg8mdb for an explanation of our study's main results for a broad audience in an animated YouTube movie. The presence of protein in the urine leads to an increased rate of renal function loss in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We studied the effect of two interventions to reduce proteinuria in CKD patients: 1) lowering sodium intake, and 2) vitamin D. We found that eating less sodium was very effective to reduce protein from the urine, and that vitamin D had only a small effect. The combined treatment was most effective. This indicates that mainly eating less salt is good to lower the risk of renal failure (requiring dialysis) and cardiovascular disease.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Lowering proteinuria/albuminuria will retard renal function loss and reduce cardiovascular events in CKD patients.