Anemia in the intensive care unit.
Somewhat superficial overview about anaemia in intensive care patients whithout new aspects.>br> – Volker Kretschmer
Anemia and postoperative rehabilitation.
Challenging review that discusses optimal hemoglobin level in regard to postoperative rehabilitation, and therefore indirectly questions restrictive hemoglobin thresholds for transfusion. – Volker Kretschmer
Erythropoietin, uncertainty principle and cancer related anaemia.
Interesting analysis -additonal evidence supporting what has now become the standard practice in the oncology community. – Patricia Ford
Combining anchor and distribution-based methods to derive minimal clinically important differences on the functional assessment of cancer therapy (FACT) anemia and fatigue scales.
This helpful article offers increased understanding and ability to utilize the functional assessment of cancer therapy (FACT) scale. – Patricia Ford
The effects of epoetin alfa on transfusion requirements in head and neck cancer patients: a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled study.
An exciting issue is studied in this head/neck cancer patient population. Perioperative EPO may have a role to decrease blood transfusion needs and speed recovery. While this is only a […]
New approach to management of life-threatening bleeding in a Jehovah’s Witness.
This is an editorial on an article we commented previously (Gannon et al. Crit Care Med 2002;30:1893-5). The author reviews a number of interesting points on rHuEPO and oxygen therapeutics. […]
The clinical value of erythropoietin in patients with cancer.
This is a good review of cancer- and chemotherapy-related anemia and its treatment with epoetin alfa. However, the review seems a bit negative regarding epoetin relative to blood transfusion when […]
Use of epoetin in patients with cancer: evidence-based clinical practice guidelines of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society of Hematology.
Published this month in Blood and the Journal of Clinical Oncology are the much discussed and debated guidelines of a blue ribbon panel on the evidence-based use of erythropoietin in […]
Severe anemia after gastrointestinal hemorrhage in a Jehovah’s Witness: new treatment strategies.
Somewhat similar to the letter published by Cothren et al. in the NEJM, this article reports the case of a Jehovah’s witness who bled to a nadir hemoglobin concentration of […]
Nontransferrin-bound iron in the plasma of haemodialysis patients after intravenous iron saccharate infusion.
This is a very important study as it has long been debated whether relevant amounts of free iron circulate after the administration of parenteral iron. The study confirms that this […]
Reduction in erythropoietin doses by the use of chronic intravenous iron supplementation in iron-replete hemodialysis patients.
The authors from Taiwan state that they used “Ferrum Hausmann, a ferric polymaltose complex.” Under the same name (Ferrum Hausmann), iron saccharate (identical to iron sucrose) has been licensed in […]
Perioperative anemia: An independent risk factor for infection, mortality, and resource utilization in surgery.
The article confirms the data of Carson et al, Lancet 1988, that perioperative anemia is a significant risk factor. However, the belief that transfusion may constitute an independent risk factor […]
A randomized trial of iron deficiency testing strategies in hemodialysis patients.
It is well known that Ferritin and Transf.sat are parameters that are influenced by various factors such as inflammation, iron overload, varying serum iron levels, etc. Therefore, better parameters are […]
The effect of i.v. iron alone or in combination with low- dose erythropoietin in the rapid correction of anemia of chronic renal failure in the predialysis period.
This is a most valuable study concerning the use of rHuEPO and iron sucrose in predialysis patients. While it is quite predictable that rHuEPO and iron patients show a faster […]
Considerations for optimal iron use for anemia due to chronic kidney disease.
It is certainly of great value to have an overview about different iron regimens in combination with rHuEPO. However, at least in Europe, there is common agreement that parenteral iron […]