Hideki Fujii, Takayuki Hamano, Ken Tsuchiya, Takahiro Kuragano, Nobuhiko Joki, Kazuhiko Tsuruya, Hirokazu Honda, Yukari Uemura, Kosaku Nitta
BACKGROUND: Responsiveness to erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) has been reported to be associated with increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality in patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD). However, the association between hyporesponsiveness to the long-acting ESA, epoetin beta pegol (CERA), and CVD remains unknown. METHODS: This multicenter prospective study included 4034 patients undergoing maintenance HD. After shifting from prior ESA to CERA, we studied the association between erythropoietin resistance index (ERI) at six months and outcomes, including cardiac events, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), and all-cause mortality, using Cox proportional hazards models (Landmark analyses) and marginal structural models to adjust for time-dependent confounding factors, including iron-containing medications and hemodiafiltration (HDF)...
December 30, 2022: International Journal of Cardiology