For the 25 (33.3 %) patients who withdrew early, the clinical characteristics of them were not different from the 50 analyzed patients in age, sex, hemodialysis duration, number of patients with DM, use of vitamin D, use of low calcium dialysate, use of statin and anti-hypertension drugs, basal serum Ca, P, iPTH, ALK-P, hsCRP, Hct, serum albumin, LDL-C and TG levels (data not shown). This evidence concerns the gene ALK and Hypertension.