Calcium ketovaline as new therapy for uremic hyperphosphatemia.

Since treatment of uremic hyperphosphatemia still represents a major problem and phosphate-binding agents carry the well-known risk of aluminum intoxication, we carried out a study to determine whether calcium ketovaline, a keto acid containing calcium, would show phosphate-binding effects comparable to those obtained with a mixture of amino acids and calcium salts of ketoanalogues tested previously. In vitro as well as in vivo studies show convincingly that calcium ketovaline is a valuable intestinal phosphate binder. Dialysis patients treated for 6 weeks showed a significant (p less than 0.05) decrease in serum phosphate from 2.36 +/- 0.19 to 1.81 +/- 0.16 mmol/l.