Research paper
Vitamin K Supplementation to Improve Vascular Stiffness in CKD: The K4Kidneys Randomized Controlled Trial.
Study answer
What this study found
Vitamin K2 did not improve vascular stiffness or other main vascular health outcomes in adults with CKD stage 3b-4. For carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity at 12 months, the vitamin K group and placebo group were both 11.7 m/s; the adjusted treatment effect was -0.12 (95% CI -0.93 to 0.69; P=0.77). No significant differences were seen in office BP, NT-pro-BNP, augmentation index, short physical performance battery, or grip strength. Falls were less frequent by rate in the vitamin K group (0.024 vs 0.161 per month; p=0.001), but overall adverse events did not differ meaningfully and only…
- Study & population
- Randomized controlled trial in adults with non-dialysis chronic kidney disease stage 3b or 4.
- Intervention
- Oral vitamin K2 (menaquinone-7, MK-7) 400 mg once daily for 12 months, compared with placebo.
- Key limitation
- The trial was relatively small for detecting modest effects and was limited to adults with non-dialysis CKD stage 3b-4 in one country.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
BACKGROUND Vascular calcification, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, is common among patients with CKD and is an independent contributor to increased vascular stiffness and vascular risk in this patient group. Vitamin K is a cofactor for prot…