Treating Anemia Would Make Kidney Transplants More Successful

Researchers have found that aggressively treating treating anemia, a red blood cell deficiency, may help save kidney thereby saving the lives of many transplant recipients. Anemia commonly arises in patients with kidney disease because the kidneys secrete most of the hormone erythropoietin that stimulates red blood cell production. Anemia is also a common complication of kidney transplantation, with a prevalence of 25% to 40% after the first year.

Gabriel Choukroun, MD, PhD (CHU Amiens in France) and his colleagues initiated the Correction of Anemia and PRogression of Renal Insufficiency in Transplant patients (CAPRIT) study to see if the drug epoetin beta (a synthetic form of erythropoietin) could help preserve kidney function in kidney transplant recipients with anemia. Specifically, the investigators tested whether completely correcting anemia (by normalizing levels of hemoglobin, a blood component that carries oxygen) is better than partially correcting anemia.

During the study, 63 kidney transplant recipients took epoetin beta so that their hemoglobin levels remained in the normal range of 13.0 to 15.0 g/dL, while 62 patients took epoetin beta so that their hemoglobin levels hovered at a lower concentration of 10.5 to 11.5 g/dL.

Among the major findings after patients were treated for two years:

• 4.8% of patients with completely corrected anemia developed kidney failure, compared with 21% of patients with partially corrected anemia.
• 94.6% of transplanted kidneys in patients with completely corrected anemia were functional, compared with 80% in patients with partially corrected anemia.
• Patients with completely corrected anemia experienced a significant improvement in quality of life at six and 12 months after starting therapy.
  
  
  Quiz on Kidney
  The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist, and are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of your spine.
  
  Healthy kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every minute, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder through two thin tubes of muscle called ureters, one on each side of your bladder. The bladder stores urine. The kidneys, ureters, and bladder are partof the urinary tract.
  
  

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  kidneys remove wastes and extra fluid from your body. Kidneys also remove acid that is produced by the cells of your body and maintain a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals-such as sodium, calcium, phosphorus and potassium-in your blood ().
  
  Without this balance, nerves, muscles, and other tissues in the body may not work normally.
  
  

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  Kidneys also make hormones that help

  • Control your blood pressure
  • Make red blood cells
  • Keep your bones strong and healthy

"This study shows that correction of anemia in kidney transplant recipients with anemia slows the progression of kidney failure and improves survival of transplanted kidneys," said Dr. Choukroun. Additional studies are needed to determine whether this also prolongs patients' lives.

Source-Eurekalert