Scroll Up
Scroll Down
Play Play Play Play
Unregistered User
Click here if this is not your Personal Edition
 
Contact Us | Free E-Mail Updates | Journals | Register a colleague
 
 
Anaemia
 
   
 
SEARCH   
Doctor's Guide Free CME
Medline
Congress Resource Centre
 

 EXPLORE :
   Most Read News
 All News  All News
 All Webcasts / CME  All Webcasts / CME
 All Cases  All Cases
 Congress Resource Centre  Congress Resource Centre
 All Medical Resources  All Medical Resources
 Medical  My Personal Edition



Warning | Privacy

 

 
 Recent news - Anaemia
    FDA Approves Ferumoxytol for Iron Deficiency Anaemia in Patients With CKD - (DGNews)
    TopAbstracts in Anaemia 06/24/2009 - (DGNews)
    TopAbstracts in Anaemia 06/10/2009 - (DGNews)
    Use of Mycophenolate Mofetil Associated With Pure Red Cell Aplasia, Warns Health Canada - (DGNews)
    Once-Monthly Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator Safe Switch for Managing Anaemia in Renal Transplant Patients Taking Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agents: Presented at ATC - (DGDispatch)

    News archive

     Recent webcasts/CME - Anaemia
    Assuring the Safe and Appropriate Management of Anemia in Two Patient Populations: Cancer and Chronic Kidney Disease
    Anemia Following Roux-en-Y Surgery for Morbid Obesity: A Review

    Webcasts/CME archive

     Recent cases - Anaemia
      Laryngeal Manifestations of Haemochromatosis
      Acute Myocardial Infarction and Pulmonary Embolism in a Young Man with Pernicious Anemia-Induced Severe Hyperhomocysteinemia
      Hook Worm Caused Chronic Anemia Found During the Procedure of Acute Gastrointestinal Bleeding: A Case Report
      Idiopathic Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia Due to Lecithin Overdose: A Case Report
      The First Description of Severe Anemia Associated with Acute Kidney Injury and Adult Minimal Change Disease: A Case Report

      Cases archive
        




      my personal edition > anaemia > news
      divider

        E-Mail this DGReview to a colleague

      DGReview


      Erythropoietin Reduces Transfusions, Increases Haemoglobin in the Critically Ill

      Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

      12/11/2002
      By Elda Hauschildt


      Weekly administration of 40,000 units of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) reduces allogeneic red blood cell (RBC) transfusion and increases haemoglobin in critically ill patients.

      Researchers in the United States say further research is needed to determine, however, whether the reduction in RBC transfusion results in improved clinical outcomes in the critically ill.

      "Despite receiving fewer RBC transfusions, patients treated with rHuEPO achieve a higher haemoglobin level, consistent with the hypothesis that the anaemia of critical illness is an underproduction anaemia characterized in part by a relative erythropoietin deficiency," say investigators led by Dr. Howard Corwin of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

      "No differences in clinical outcomes were demonstrated between rHuEPO and placebo groups. Therefore, while it is clear that rHuEPO treatment reduces RBC transfusions in critically ill patients, further study is necessary to establish whether this reduction will also result in improved clinical outcomes for some critically ill patients."

      Sixty five US institutions participated in the randomised, controlled trial between December 1998 and June 2001. Enrolment included 1,302 critically ill patients treated in an intensive care unit (ICU) for two days and expected to remain there for two more days.

      A group of 650 patients was randomised to rHuEPO while 652 patients received placebo.

      Either rHuEPO or placebo was administered by subcutaneous injection on the third ICU day. Administration continued weekly for those who remained hospitalised, to a total of three doses. Patients still in ICU on day 21 received a fourth dose.

      Patients randomised to rHuEPO were less likely to undergo transfusion (50.5 percent) than patients receiving placebo (60.4 percent). Those in the rHuEPO group had a 19 percent reduction in total units of RBCs transfused. They had a reduction in RBC units transfused per day alive, with a ratio of transfusion rates of 0.81.

      Patients receiving rHuEPO also had a greater increase in haemoglobin from baseline compared with placebo patients.

      Mortality was 14 percent for rHuEPO patients and 15 percent for placebo patients. There was no significant difference between the two groups in adverse clinical events either, the researchers note.
      JAMA, 2002; 288: 2827-2835.

      E-Mail this DGReview to a colleague   To print, use this version






      All contents Copyright (c) 1995-2009 Doctor's Guide Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.



      The NTK initiative. Physicians helping physicians identify Need-To-Know science
         Feedback
      Please rate this article: Strongly DISAGREE...Strongly AGREE NTK logo
      Question 1 - Physicians need to become aware of this information as soon as possible. Question 2 - This information is likely to have an impact on the way physicians practice medicine.
      1
      2
      3
      4
      5
      6
      7
      Send