Water-Soluble Vitamins Status in Patients Undergoing Maintenance Hemodialysis

The concentration of water-soluble vitamins (except folic acid and vitamin B(12)) is not routinely measured, which may lead to undiagnosed deficiencies among hemodialysis (HD) patients. The aim of the study was to assess the blood concentration of water-soluble vitamins in HD patients in comparison with healthy subjects and to assess the impact of diabetes mellitus (DM) coexistence on the concentration of these vitamins. The two-center study included 142 HD patients and a control group of 31 healthy subjects. Vitamins concentration was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Vitamin B(1), B(6), and B(12) levels were significantly lower in the HD group than in the control group (p < 0.001). Vitamin B(1) and B(2) were negatively correlated with blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels before HD (R = −0.39, R = −0.38; p < 0.05). Vitamin B(3), B(12), and C were positively correlated with the albumin concentration (R = 0.26, R = 0.27, R = 0.28; p < 0.05). Among diabetic patients, only the concentration of vitamin B(1) was lower than among non-diabetic patients. The concentration of water-soluble vitamins may be related to the adequacy of dialysis, the time of laboratory determination since the last dialysis, diet, coexistence of other diseases, use of drugs, and dietary supplements in individual patients.