Anemia risk increases with higher stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD), study findings presented at the 56th European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association congress in Budapest, Hungary, suggest.
The population-based cohort study included 55,940 patients with newly progressed CKD in stages 3 to 5. Within 1 year, anemia developed in 36.1% of patients with CKD stage 3a, increasing to 62.3% within 5 years. Anemia risks were greater in higher CKD stages. Anemia developed in 80.8% of CKD 3b patients, 90.6% of CKD stage 4 patients, and 98.8% of CKD stage 5 patients within 5 years, Søren Viborg Vestergaard, MD, of Aarhus Hospital in Aarhus, Denmark, and colleagues reported.
Compared with CKD stage 3a, CKD stages 3b, 4, and 5 were associated with significant 1.5-, 2.4-, and 5.4-fold increased risks of anemia.
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In addition, 1 in 5 patients with any CKD stage 3 to 5 and half of all patients with CKD stage 5 experienced severe anemia (hemoglobin level below 8 g/dL) during a total of 8 years of follow-up.
The investigators defined anemia as a hemoglobin level below 13 g/dL for men and below 12 g/dL for women.
“Clinicians should be aware of the high risk of anemia in patients with CKD stage -5 in everyday clinical care and exercise vigilance about associated complications,” the authors concluded in their study abstract.
Reference
Vestergaard SV, Heide-Jørgensen U, Van Haalen H, et al. Incidence of anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease—A population-based cohort study. Presented at the 56th European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association congress in Budapest, Hungary, June 13 to 16. Abstract FP398.http://mediatheque.cyim.com/mediatheque/media.aspx?mediaId=64487&channel=60398