Impact of Serum Hepcidin and Inflammatory Markers on Resistance to Recombinant Human Erythropoietin Therapy in Hemodialysis Patients

Abstract

his study was conducted on 100 subjects, they were divided into the following two groups: Patients' group: included 60 patients on maintenance hemodialysis presented to Ain Shams University Hospitals. They were 38 males & 22 females, their age ranged between 17 & 71 years with mean ages (48.83±13.89). This group was divided into two subgroups responders and non- responders to EPO treatment in accordance to the European Best Practice Guidelines (Locatelli et al., 2004). The non-responders group for EPO treatment included 33 anemic patients with hemoglobin less than (11 gm/dl), while responders group included 27 patients with hemoglobin more than 11 gm/dl. This group was further divided according to ERI into three tertiles where the ERI was less than 6.5 in the first tertile (15 patients), between 6.5-11 in the second tertile (30 patients), more than 11 in the third tertile (15 patients) (Panichi et al., 2011). Control group: included 40 healthy subjects of matched age and sex as a control group. They were 21 males and 19 females, their age ranged between 28 and 70 years with mean ages (48.03±10.33).