Low cholesterol increases kidney disease death rate
Low cholesterol and protein levels in the blood also portend a higher death rate in kidney disease patients according to a study conducted at the Department of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia in 1999.[1]
While age, gender, and underlying chronic medical conditions were not predictive of mortality, both low protein and low cholesterol levels were.
This finding was reinforced four years later at the University of California in a study of kidney dialysis patients.[2]
This study found that patients were more likely to survive if they were overweight and had high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure.
Another study published four years later confirmed the previous studies when it found that higher total cholesterol was associated with lower mortality in dialysis patients.[3] It also showed that lower cholesterol levels are associated with higher mortality in patients who have moderate and advanced kidney disease and are not yet on dialysis. Patients with chronic kidney disease whose cholesterol was lower than 153mg/dL (4.0mmol/L) were alsmost twice as lilely to die as similar patients whose cholesterol was higher than 215mg/dL (5.6mmol/L)
References
1. Obialo CI, Okonofua EC, Nzerue MC, et al. Role of hypoalbuminemia and hypocholesterolemia as copredictors of mortality in acute renal failure. Kidney Int. 1999; 56: 1058-63.
2. Kalantar-Zadeh K, Block G, Humphreys MH, Kopple JD. Reverse epidemiology of cardiovascular risk factors in maintenance dialysis patients. Kidney Int 2003; 63: 793-808.
3. Kovesdy CP, et al. Inverse association between lipid levels and mortality in men with chronic kidney disease who are not yet on dialysis: effects of case mix and the malnutrition-inflammation-cachexia syndrome. J Am Soc Nephrol 2007;18(1):304-11.
last updated: 1 December 2011
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