Impact of inflammation on anemia of hemodialysis patients who were under treatment of recombinant human erythropoietin

The aim of this study was to investigate the association between serum C-reactive protein (CRP) as the marker of inflammation with serum ferritin level and its role in the severity of anemia of hemodialysis (HD) patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a group of stable hemodialysis patients. There were 36 patients overall, 25 of which were non-diabetic and 11 were diabetic mean patients' age was 53 (+/- 15.8) years. In this study, there was a significant inverse correlation between serum ferritin and hematocrit level (r=-0.34, p=0.044) (adjusted for age). Also a significant positive correlation between serum CRP and serum iron (r=0.44, p=0.008) (adjusted for age too) was observed. Moreover, in male HD patients, a significant positive correlation between serum CRP and serum ferritin (r=0.56, p=0.009) was found. Malnutrition and inflammation in hemodialysis may increase serum ferritin concentration apart from iron status, and needs more attention during iron therapy for the treatment of anemia in HD patients.