ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Anemia is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in patients with chronic renal failure. The most effective treatment modality for anemia is erythropoietin injection. Besides erythropoietic effect, erythropoietin has multiple beneficial effects such as anti-oxidant, anti-hypoxic, anti-apoptotic and vasculogenetic effects, and prevents tubular lesions and interstitial fibrosis. Despite lots of advantages of erythropoietin therapy, the number of patients treated with this agent is modest, particularly during the pre-dialysis chronic renal failure. We conducted a clinical trial to evaluate the effects of erythropoietin on renal function in the anemic pre-dialysis patients with chronic renal failure. METHODS: Data of 23 pre-dialysis patients with chronic renal failure were analyzed retrospectively 6 months prior, and prospectively 6 months after the initiation of erythropoietin therapy. Erythropoietin was admitted at a dose of 3000 IU weekly with supplementary iron. RESULTS: The average hematocrit and hemoglobin rose from 22.1+/-2.5%, 7.4+/-0.8 g/dL to 28.4+/-4.2%, 9.6+/-1.5 g/dL, respectively. When linear regression analysis was applied to pre- and post-erythropoietin glomerular filtration rate and 1/Cr, mean rate of decline of glomerular filtration rate were significantly delayed (p=0.039) but that of 1/Cr had a tendency to be delayed but was not statistically meaningful (p=0.099). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of the anemia with low dose erythropoietin in pre-dialysis patients with chronic renal failure is relatively safe and may slow the rate of renal function deterioration.