Omega-3 fatty acids may help prevent sudden cardiac death in patients on hemodialysis, a study in Kidney International suggests. Researchers from Indiana University studied blood samples from 100 patients who died of sudden cardiac death in the first year of hemodialysis, in addition to 300 who lived.

"We found that higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood of patients who were just starting hemodialysis were very strongly associated with a lower risk of sudden cardiac death over the first year of their treatment," said Allon Friedman, M.D., first author of the study.

Researchers noted a significant inverse relationship between long-chain n-3 fatty acids and the risk of sudden cardiac death; the odds for death at one year of dialysis for the second, third and fourth quartile groups were 0.37, 0.22, and 0.20, respectively.

Friedman, associate professor of medicine in the Division of Nephrology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said the results warrant a placebo-controlled clinical study to further analyze the relationship.

“Because omega-3 fatty acids can be obtained from certain foods, such as fish oil, our findings also have important implications for the type of diet we recommend to patients on dialysis," he said.