Gemfibrozil in CAPD patients

Gemfibrozil was given at a daily oral dose of 600 mg to 28 CAPD patients with serum triglyceride levels higher than 200 mg/dl, after 2 months of low fat low calorie diet. Eleven patients dropped out from the study due to spontaneous withdrawal of the drug or to intercurrent hospitalization. The 17 patients who completed the study showed a significant decrease in serum total (434.6 +/- 207.9 to 237.5 +/- 81.6 mg/dl, p 0.003), VLDL (268.8 +/- 17.8 to 109.2 +/- 66.9 mg/dl, p less than 0.005) and LDL (152.9 +/- 34.6 to 119.2 +/- 30.7 mg/dl, p = 0.004) triglyceride. Serum VLDL cholesterol increased from 108.7 +/- 54.1 to 59.9 +/- 29.0 mg/dl, p = 0.003. Serum HDL cholesterol decreased from 25.4 +/- 4.8 to 35.3 +/- 6.3 mg/dl (p less than 0.001). Apo A1 increased from 117.8 +/- 16.7 to 130.8 +/- 16.7 mg/dl (p less than 0.001) and Apo B increased from 173 +/- 26.7 to 137.8 +/- 21.9 mg/dl (p less than 0.001). No clinical or laboratory side effect was observed in the patients who completed the study. Therefore dropouts were due to the poor patients' compliance rather than to the severity of side effects.