Does epoetin beta with or without intravenous iron sucrose improve clinical outcomes, cardiac function, and reduce hospitalizations in patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure and anaemia?
Correction of anaemia with epoetin beta and intravenous iron in patients with chronic heart failure significantly improved functional class, cardiac function, and reduced hospitalizations.
UNLABELLED: Anaemia is frequently found in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and has been associated with an increase in mortality and morbidity, impaired cardiac and renal function and a reduced quality of life (QoL) compared with non-anaemic CHF patients. Correction of anaemia with recombinant human erythropoietin (epoetin) has been associated with an improvement in CHF in both controlled and uncontrolled studies. The present study describes our findings in a series of 78 consecutive patients with symptomatic CHF and anaemia (haemoglobin (Hb) level 90% of the patients had concomitant mild-to-moderate chronic kidney disease at baseline and study end (CKD), as defined by the accepted diagnostic criterion of a CCr <60 ml/min. CONCLUSIONS: The correction of the anaemia with epoetin beta together with initial intravenous iron supplementation, resulted in significant improvements in NYHA class and cardiac function, and a reduction in hospitalization rate. Moreover, renal function was maintained stable in most patients.
Silverberg et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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