Chronic Renal Failure Role Of Erythropoietin

Erythropoietin, also known as EPO, is a hormone that is produced by the kidneys to stimulate the bone marrow to produce enough red blood cells and promote the synthesis of hemoglobin so as to maintain normal reb blood cell count and normal transports of oxygen and other nutritions to the body cells and tissues.

For chronic renal failure patients, they are easy to develop renal anemia when renal functions are impaired. Damaged kidneys can not secrete adequate erythropoietin and cause low red blood cell count, anemia, low hemoglobin, ischemia and hypoxia in the body, followed by a series of health issues such as fatigue, tiredness, cold feeling, lack of energy, further renal damages, etc.

Since the impaired kidneys can not produce enough erythropoietin, it is necessary to have EPO injection or intravenous method. Though it is usually used on dialysis patients, renal failure patients that have not yet begun dialysis treatment can also have EPO supplement if they have developed serious anemia.

While receiving EPO injection, it is necessary to have regular check of the patient’s hemoglobin level because too much erythropoietin in the blood can be harmful. It has been shown that hemoglobin level higher than 12g/dl can have more risk to develop heart problems or even heart failure and stroke. Therefore you may need to reduce the dosage of EPO to prevent too high hemoglobin levels.

Besides low erythropoietin, anemia in chronic renal failure patients can be caused by iron deficiency or lack of vitamin B12 or folic acid. If a person lacks iron, EPO supplement can not help ease anemia, therefore renal failure patients need to increase their iron, folic acid and vitamin B12 through diets or drugs if necessary.

When there is adequate erythropoietin and when anemia is reversed, patients will feel energetic and the sick feeling due to anemia can all be relieved such as cold feeling, fatigue, etc.

We know that healthy kidneys have endocrine function and it can help regulate blood pressure, stimulate red blood cell production, regulate electrolyte balance and normal metabolism, etc. When kidneys are damaged, all these functions will be affected, therefore EPO is not the only treatment that renal failure patients needed. Different medications and treatment are needed according to the patient’s clinical symptoms and severity of renal damages.