Qom University of Medical Sciences Journal

Background and Objectives:Anemia is one of the common complications of chronic renal failure and vitamin C can improve anemia through releasing iron from ferritin and its transfer from the reticuloendothelial system to transferrin. This study was performedwith the objective ofevaluating the effect ofvitaminCsupplementation on serum levels of hemoglobin, hematocrit, and ferritin in hemodialysis patients.

Methods:In a double-blindclinical trial,178 patients with chronic renal failure were randomly divided into three groups of intervention, control, and witness. In the intervention group, 250 mg vitamin C, 250 mg of vitamin C was injected intravenously at the end of each hemodialysis session three times a week for 8 weeks.In the witness group, same amount of placebo saline was injected at the same time,and no intervention was performed in the control group. Laboratory parameters, including serum levels of hemoglobin, hematocrit, and ferritin were measured at the beginning and end of the intervention. Data analysis was performed by Chi-square and one-way ANOVA. The significance level was considered to be p<0.05.

Results: There were significant differences in serum levels of hemoglobin and hematocrit in the interventiongroup,but, the changes of the serum level of ferritinwere not significant in any of the groups.

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that vitamin C supplementation in hemodialysis patients cansignificantlyincrease the meanserum levels of hemoglobin and hematocrit, however, it cannot significantlychange the serum ferritin level.