Echocardiographic findings in hemodialysis patients treated with recombinant human erythropoietin: proposal for a hematocrit most beneficial to hemodynamics.

We investigated the hemodynamic effects of the correction of anemia with recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) in 28 hemodialysis patients with severe anemia. Echocardiograms were recorded before the administration of rHuEPO (period I) with a hematocrit of 19.2 +/- 1.5% (mean +/- SD) and repeated twice (periods II and III) when the hematocrit was increased to 25.7 +/- 1.1% and to 30.0 +/- 1.0%. Left ventricular end-diastolic dimension (LVDd) decreased from 51.0 +/- 6.1 to 48.8 +/- 5.8 and to 48.3 +/- 7.1 mm, but no changes were observed in left ventricular end-systolic dimension. Cardiac output (CO) decreased from 5.89 +/- 1.46 to 5.00 +/- 1.44 and to 4.67 +/- 1.33 l/min. The thickness of the interventricular septum and the left ventricular posterior wall remained unchanged. Blood pressure was kept rather constant, although antihypertensive therapy needed to be adjusted to prevent the occurrence or aggravation of hypertension. Total peripheral resistance increased from 1481 +/- 359 to 1832 +/- 487 and to 1946 +/- 493 dynes.sec/cm5. The decreases in LVDd and CO were significant between periods I and II, without further changes between periods II and III. More antihypertensive therapy was needed in period III than in period II. Similar echocardiographic results were observed in 10 patients in whom antihypertensive therapy was not required throughout the study. In conclusion, an increase in hematocrit to 25% would be appropriate in order to obtain an effective hemodynamic improvement with rHuEPO therapy in dialysis patients although a higher hematocrit level might be desirable in order to improve working capacity.