Low levels of cholesterol are predictive of higher rates of death in patients with end-stage renal disease

This study was published in Nephron Clinical Practice 2011;119(3):c214-9

Study title and authors:
Reverse epidemiology of lipid-death associations in a cohort of end-stage renal disease patients.

Bowden RG, La Bounty P, Shelmadine B, Beaujean AA, Wilson RL, Hebert S.
School of Education, Baylor University, Waco, Tex., USA.

This study can be accessed at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21832847

End-stage kidney disease is the complete or almost complete failure of the kidneys to work. Reverse epidemiology is a term which says that obesity and high cholesterol may be protective and associated with greater survival in disease.

The purpose of this study was to determine if there are reverse epidemiological associations between cholesterol and mortality in end-stage renal disease patients. 438 patients with end-stage renal disease were tracked for 36 months.

The study found that low levels of cholesterol (including the so called "bad" LDL cholesterol) were predictive of higher rates of death in patients with end-stage renal disease.