Impact of gender, C-reactive protein and body mass index on erythropoietin resistance index in maintenance hemodialysis patients

Introduction: Anemia is caused by a variety of mechanisms in chronic kidney disease (CKD), including erythropoietin (EPO) deficiency, resistance to erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), impaired iron metabolism and its clinical management remains challenging. Objectives: The aim of the current study was to evaluate the impact of CRP, BMI, gender and duration of hemodialysis. Patients and Methods: A total of 94 maintenance HD patients participated in this study. Laboratory investigation included CBC, renal function test and qualitatively C-reactive protein was performed. Erythropoietin resistance index (ERI) was calculated as weekly EPO dose/ body weight in kg/hemoglobin level. Results: Female gender had significantly higher ERI (11.36 ± 1.52) compared to male HD patients (10.68 ± 1.56) (P ˃ 0.05). Patients with low BMI had significant higher ERI (12.08 ± 1.09) compared to HD patients with overweight (10.62 ± 0.79) and obese (9.62 ± 1.68) (P ˃ 0.05). The highest ERI were found in the positive CPR group (P ˃ 0.05) compared to negative CRP group. There is no significant difference between duration of hemodialysis. Conclusion: Our data exposed that female gender; low BMI and inflammation (positive CRP) contributed to EPO hyporesponsiveness. In addition, there is no significant difference between lengths on hemodialysis.