Factors influencing responsiveness to treatment in children with renal anemia in end stage renal disease

UNLABELLED: Human recombined erythropoietin had proven its efficiency in the treatment of anemia in chronic dialyzed patients and allows the elimination of complete necessity of transfusion. PURPOSE: We proposed ourselves to identify the factors that limit the answer to the combined treatment with iron and erythropoietin in a group study of 71 children diagnosed with ESRD in the IVth Pediatrics Clinic and included in the chronic dialysis program. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We divided the patients in three groups, in relation to the time in which the patients had reached and maintained the hemoglobin value of 10.5 g/dl under sustained iron treatment, combined with EPO. We analyzed the correlations established between responsively/non-responsively to treatment and the medium value of Hb, Ht, reticulocytes number, plasma value of iron and ferritin, the parameters of phospho-calcium metabolism, malnutrition as presence and degree, the age of entrance in dialysis and the duration of renal function support. RESULTS: We observed that Hb and Ht have low medium values (Hb-8.44 g/dl, Ht-25.65%) in the non-responsive group, by comparison to the responsive patients group (Hb-10.98 g/dl, Ht -32.31%). The most elevated values of iPTH around 420 pg/ml and the most frequent cases of protein-caloric malnutrition (26.8%) are seen in the non-responsive group to EPO treatment. The age of 13 years old at the entrance in the chronic dialysis program and the time of support of renal function over 21 months are seen in the non-responder group. CONCLUSION: We consider the secondary hyperparathyroidism, the protein-caloric malnutrition, the older age in the moment of entrance in dialysis and the long time of support of renal function factors that are able to influence, in a negative manner, the response to this treatment.