Individualizing anaemia therapy

Abstract

Individualized strategies for managing renal anaemia with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) need to be advanced. Recent outcomes from clinical studies prompted a narrowing of the guideline-recommended haemoglobin target (11–12 g/dL) due to increased mortality and morbidity when targeting higher haemoglobin concentrations. Maintaining a narrow target is a clinical challenge, as haemoglobin concentration tends to fluctuate. The goal of individualized treatment is to achieve the haemoglobin target at the lowest ESA dose while avoiding significant fluctuations in haemoglobin concentrations and persistently low or high concentrations. This may require changes to the ESA dose and dosing frequency over the course of treatment.