Response of homocysteine, cystathionine, and methylmalonic acid to vitamin treatment in dialysis patients. Clin Chem 2005;51:196–201

>80 % of hemodialysis patients and is considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Vitamin treatment lowers total homocysteine (tHcy) concentrations in plasma and may therefore reduce the associated risk. Current treatment strategies have not achieved normal-ization of tHcy in the majority of dialysis patients. Methods: We administered folic acid (5 mg) plus vita-min B6 (50 mg) and B12 (0.7 mg) intravenously to 38 hyperhomocysteinemic patients (tHcy>18 mol/L) af-ter each dialysis treatment. The treatment phase lasted 1 month, and serum concentrations of tHcy, methylma-lonic acid (MMA), and cystathionine were measured at weeks 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 24. Results: The median serum tHcy concentration de-creased significantly, from 26.1 mol/L at baseline t