[Vitamin D and chronic kidney disease: increasing role for an old vitamin].

Patients with chronic kidney disease exhibit a high mortality risk that is not fully explained by the classical cardiovascular risk factors. Vitamin D deficiency highly prevalent among CKD patients is independently associated with an increased mortality risk in this population. Advances in the understanding of vitamin D physiology dramatically changed the view on the role of this vitamin in kidney disease. Extra-renal actions on a variety of...