PMID: 8448609Mar 1, 1993Paper

The relationship of haemoglobin to serum erythropoietin concentrations in the anaemia of rheumatoid arthritis: the effect of oral prednisolone

British Journal of Rheumatology
R G KendallT Pullar

Abstract

Previous studies of the erythropoietin response to anaemia in RA have yielded conflicting findings. Some have found the response to be impaired and others have found a normal response. We have compared erythropoietin (EPO) levels measured by radioimmunoassay, in 54 anaemic rheumatoid patients and 55 patients with iron deficiency anaemia but no inflammatory disease. The erythropoietin response in the rheumatoid patients was impaired compared with the control group (P < 0.025) but only seven rheumatoid patients showed a response which fell below the 95% confidence intervals predicted for the control group. Rheumatoid patients who fell within the highest quartile for serum ferritin concentrations (i.e. those most likely to have anaemia of chronic disease) had significantly lower EPO levels compared with the control group (P < 0.01). EPO levels in rheumatoid patients within the lowest quartile for ferritin (i.e. those with iron deficiency anaemia) were not significantly different from the control group (P = 0.670). The difference in EPO response between the RA patients in the upper and lower quartile for ferritin approached but did not achieve significance (P = 0.056). In a second study 15 anaemic RA patients were given a 5-day cou...Continue Reading

Citations

Nov 14, 2012·Nature Reviews. Rheumatology·Günter Weiss, Georg Schett
Aug 8, 2001·Clinical and Laboratory Haematology·R G Kendall
Dec 24, 2003·Laboratory Investigation; a Journal of Technical Methods and Pathology·Thomas SchubertDaniela N Männel

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