Renal osteodystrophy in early chronic renal failure.

A bone histological investigation was performed in 20 mondialyzed patients with chronic renal failure and a glomerular filtration rate of 5.1--31.9 ml/min. Osteomalacia was the predominant pathological feature in 60% of the patients, mixed lesion of both osteomalacia and osteitis fibrosa in 30%, and osteitis fibrosa only was seen in 5% of the patients. Only 1 showed normal bone histology. Elevated plasma immunoreactive parathyroid hormone was found in only 1 patient out of 6. The beneficial effect of 1 alpha-hydroxycholecalciferol was recognized in 7 patients, but the drug induced relatively rapid growth of serum creatinine incidentally, when patients had more than 4 mg/dl of serum creatinine.