title: Effect of vitamin C on endothelial function of children with chronic renal failure: An experimental study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is well established that improvement of endothelial dysfunction (ED) could prevent or delay the occurrence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its related morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). In this study we investigated whether administration of vitamin C could be effective by improving brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and intima media thickness (IMT), two surrogate markers of ED, in children with CKD or chronic renal failure (CRF).
  
  
  METHODS
  In this analytic-experimental study children aged 3-18 years with a diagnosis of CRF and a group of healthy children were enrolled. Vitamin C (250 mg/day) administrated for the two studied groups for 1 month. Endothelial function was evaluated by FMD and IMT measurement using vascular Doppler ultrasonography, before and after trial.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study 18 patients with CRF and 19 normal children as the control group were studied. At baseline mean of IMT and FMD was not different in the two studied groups (P > 0.05). After vitamin C administration IMT decreased significantly in the two studied groups (P < 0.05). FMD increased in the two studied groups but the difference was significant in the control group (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of this interventional trial have demonstrated that vitamin C could have protective effect on ED of patients with CRF possibly in those with severe form of the disease but for obtaining more conclusive results larger sample size is needed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Sabri
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Esfandiar Najafi
authors.initials: EN
authors.lastname: Tavana
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Isfahan Kidney Diseases Research Center, Isfahan Child Growth and Development Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable Disease, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Alaleh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gheissari
keywords: Chronic renal failure; endothelium; flow-mediated dilation; vitamin C