Reno- and Vascular Protective Effect of a Vitamin-D-analogue in Moderate to Severe Chronic Kidney Disease

Recently it has been documented that vitamin D has important functions in the human body that are unrelated to its primary effects in calcium homeostasis and bone mineralization. In clinical studies, paricalcitol - a low-calcemic vitamin D analogue - has been shown to decrease proteinuria, a marker of disease progression and cardiovascular risk in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a paricalcitol on renal and cardiovascular variables in patients with moderate to severe CKD.