Abstract:
Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of erythropoietin (EPO) in non-dialysis patients with renal anaemia.
Methods Randomized controlled trials were searched and identified from Chinese journal full-text database, Chinese biomedical literature database, Chinese scientific journals full-text database, PubMed, the Cochrane library, EMBASE and related journals. We evaluated the quality of the included studies by Handbook 5.0 recommended standard and analyzed data by Cochrane collaboration’s RevMan 5.0.
Results We included thirteen trials (
n=1 728). The baselines of each trial were comparable. Meta analysis showed that EPO vs. place-bo: haemoglobin (
P=0.003), hematocrit (
P<0.000 01), kidney function (BUN
P=0.09,Cr
P=0.09), BP(systolic BP
P=0.000 3, diastolic BP
P =0.001), serum iron(
P=0.05), transferrin saturation(
P=0.002), adverse effect of dizziness(
P=0.003); EPO vs. different uses, different doses: haemoglobin (
P=0.06), adverse effect of urinary tract in fection(
P=0.58).
Conclusion The current evidence showed that EPO is significantly beneficial to non-dialysis patients with renal anaemia. Well designed randomized controlled trials with a larger sample size, a longer intervention and follow-up period are still needed.