Correcting Anemia Can Protect Renal Allografts

Targeting hemoglobin (Hb) values of 13 g/dL or higher reduces progression of chronic allograft nephropathy in kidney transplant recipients, a prospective study suggests.

After two years of treatment with epoetin beta to keep Hb levels in the normal range of 13.0 to 15.0 g/dL (63 kidney-transplant recipients) or at a lower concentration of 10.5 to 11.5 g/dL (62 recipients), 4.8% of patients with completely corrected anemia developed kidney failure, compared with 21% of those with partially corrected anemia.

Gabriel Choukroun, MD, PhD, and co-investigators also noted in Journal of the American Society of Nephrology that 94.6% of transplanted kidneys in patients with completely corrected anemia were functional, compared with 80% in the partial-correction group.

From the February 01, 2012 Issue of Renal and Urology News