[Blood folates in chronic uremic patients in dialysis treatment]

The authors, after having reviewed folic acid and folates chemical and biochemical characteristics and their absorption and excretion modalities, determine serum folate levels by radioassay method on 30 patients with renal failure in chronic dialysis and on 24 normal controls. Low serum folate levels concerned 14 uremic patients (46.6% of th cases): 10 in hemodialysis and 4 in peritoneal dialysis. The mean serum folate values was 3.31 ng/ml (+/- 1.93) for the uremic patients' group and 4.29 ng/ml (+/- 1.21) for the control group. The difference between the mean level of these groups was statistically significant (p less than 0.05). No significant difference was observed among the mean serum folate levels of the uremic patients in peritoneal dialysis and of those in hemodialysis. Significantly low serum folate levels were finally found for the uremic HBsAg-positive patients, but in the same subjects the dialytic treatment period had been very prolonged. The authors conclude emphasizing the usefulness of folic acid treatment in uremic patients on dialysis, also without having an evident hematologic picture of megaloblastic anemia.