Anemia Management Practice in French Hemodialysis Centers

Objective: Evaluate the hemoglobin (Hb) target values in hemodialysis (HD) patients treated with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESA).
Methods: Records of anemia parameters of HD patients treated during year 2012 in 5 French dialysis centers were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were stratified into “annual Hb categories” according to their monthly mean Hb: Low Hb (< 10 g/dL), Ideal Hb (from 10 to ≤ 12 g/dL), High Hb (> 12 g/dL) if they spent ≥ 75% of time in the respective category; otherwise patients were classified as Fluctuating Hb.
Results: Out of 636 evaluable patients (mean age 66.6 [SD 14.9] years; male 59.4%), 91.4% received ESA treatment and 74.2% received intravenous iron. Most patients (68.9%) belonged to the Fluctuating Hb category (Ideal 18.7%; High 9.6%; Low 2.8%). Patients in the Fluctuating category experienced more frequently ESA dose changes, transfusions, hospitalizations and co-morbidities compared with patients in other Hb categories. Multinomial logistic regression identified presence of at least one comorbidity (odds-ratio [OR]=7.6), hospitalization (OR=2.2), transfusion (OR=2.9), male gender (OR=0.6) and serum ferritin ≥500 vs. <200 µg/L (OR = 0.4) as predictors of Fluctuating vs. Ideal annual Hb category.
Conclusions: Only 18.7% of patients had stable Hb levels within the target range according to French and international guidelines; most had fluctuating Hb levels and few patients had a consistently low annual Hb. These findings suggest that development and implementation of improved hematologic assessment and anemia treatment strategies are needed to minimize fluctuating Hb values in HD patients.