Ye X, Kooman JP, van der Sande FM, et al. - Researchers examined the links between phosphate levels and mortality while accounting for the interactions with age and parameters related to malnutrition and inflammation in hemodialysis (HD) patients. Enrollment of a total of 245,853 adult HD patients managed in Fresenius Medical Care North America clinics from January 2010 to October 2018 was done. A tendency to exhibit lower levels of serum phosphate, albumin, creatinine and normalized protein catabolic rate, was observed in older patients. They noted a higher risk of mortality, across all age strata, in relation to both low (< 4.0 mg/dL) and high (> 5.5 mg/dL) phosphate levels. Findings revealed consistent U-shaped links between serum phosphate and mortality across age strata and levels of inflammatory and nutritional status.