Purpose: Erythropoietin is the treatment of the anaemia in chronic kidney disease. A target rate of haemoglobin higher than 11 g/dl was usually proposed, but recent recommendations stated that higher limit of haemoglobin was to be reached, with the aim to improve the quality of life of the patients and to reduce their risks of cardiovascular diseases. These objectives are to be revised, according to the results of recently published clinical trials.
Current knowledge and key points: Patients treated to reach a high rate of haemoglobin (between 13 and 14,5 g/dl) have an improved quality of life, but a 30% higher mortality rate, compared to patients treated with a lower objective of haemoglobin rate (10-12 g/dl). Hypertension and vascular access thromboses were also more frequent in the patients with the highest haemoglobin rate. Two to three times more erythropoietin was necessary to reach the higher rate of haemoglobin. These results favour a target rate of haemoglobin not higher than 12 g/dl. A polemic followed the results of these clinical trials, mostly in the United States, questioning the way in which the higher limit had been fixed whereas precise data were unavailable. The role of pharmaceutical industry and of for profit dialysis centres was underlined.
Future prospects and projects: The next step is now to explain if the excess in cardiovascular morbimortality is related to the haemoglobin rate or to a direct effect of the erythropoietin. Such an understanding is important, the more so as new erythropoiesis-stimulating agents are being developed.