<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD JATS (Z39.96) Journal Archiving and Interchange DTD v1.1d1 20130915//EN" "JATS-archivearticle1.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="letter" dtd-version="1.1d1">
  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Biomedical Research and Therapy</journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn pub-type="epub" publication-format="electronic">2198-4093</issn>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>BioMedPress</publisher-name>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.15419/bmrat.v4i7.195</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="display-channel">
          <subject>Letter</subject>
        </subj-group>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Biomedical Research and Therapy</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Erythropoietin dose and survival of hemodialysis patients</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Mohammadian</surname>
            <given-names>Mahdi</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1"/>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Salehiniya</surname>
            <given-names>Hamid</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2"/>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author">
          <name>
            <surname>Khazaei</surname>
            <given-names>Salman</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3"/>
        </contrib>
        <contrib contrib-type="author" corresp="yes">
          <name>
            <surname>Mohammadian-Hafshejani</surname>
            <given-names>Abdollah</given-names>
          </name>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4"/>
          <xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5"/>
          <xref ref-type="corresp" rid="cor1">*</xref>
        </contrib>
        <aff id="aff1">
          <institution>Department of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Dezful, Iran</institution>
        </aff>
        <aff id="aff2">
          <institution>Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran</institution>
        </aff>
        <aff id="aff3">
          <institution>Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran</institution>
        </aff>
        <aff id="aff4">
          <institution>Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Health, Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran</institution>
        </aff>
        <aff id="aff5">
          <institution>Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran</institution>
        </aff>
      </contrib-group>
      <author-notes>
        <corresp id="cor1"><label>*</label>For correspondence: <email>amohamadii1361@gmail.com</email></corresp>
        <fn fn-type="con" id="equal-contrib">
          <label>*</label>
          <p>These authors contributed equally to this work</p>
        </fn>
      </author-notes>
      <pub-date date-type="pub" publication-format="electronic">
        <day>28</day>
        <month>07</month>
        <year>2017</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>4</volume>
      <issue>7</issue>
      <fpage>1</fpage>
      <lpage>4</lpage>
      <history>
        <date date-type="received">
          <day>16</day>
          <month>06</month>
          <year>2017</year>
        </date>
        <date date-type="accepted">
          <day>03</day>
          <month>07</month>
          <year>2017</year>
        </date>
      </history>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>Copyright: &#169; The Author(s) 2017</copyright-statement>
        <copyright-year>2017</copyright-year>
        <license license-type="open-access" xlink:href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/CC-BY/4.0">
          <license-p>This article is published with open access by BioMedPress (BMP), Laboratory of Stem Cell Research and Application, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0) which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <self-uri content-type="pdf" xlink:href="http://www.bmrat.org/index.php/BMRAT/article/view/195/525"/>
      <abstract>
        <p>Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is known as a major health problem worldwide <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref4">Levey et al., 2007</xref>. The CKD is defined as a stage of disease in which the patient's kidney function is less than a half of normal capacity (2). If the kidney function is 10% to 15% less than the normal capacity, the patient has reached the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). At this stage, the kidney transplant or dialysis with hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis is necessary for patient's survival <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref5">Levey et al., 2002</xref>.</p>
      </abstract>
      <kwd-group>
        <kwd>Erythropoietin</kwd>
        <kwd>Survival</kwd>
        <kwd>Hemodialysis</kwd>
      </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
  <body>
    <sec id="s1">
      <title>Letter</title>
      <p>The incidence of ESRD is rapidly increasing globally, so that the incidence of disease has had the ten-time increased in America during the past few years <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref3">Health and Services, 2011</xref>. On average, the number of patients, who receive hemodialysis treatment, has had the annual increase of approximately 7% <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref6">Lysaght, 2002</xref>. The prevalence of this disease varies in different parts of world. The highest incidence belongs to Taiwan with 2447 patients per one million people, but the lowest incidence belongs to the Philippines with 110 patients per one million people <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref7">Mongoh et al., 2008</xref>.</p>
      <p>There is a significant statistical relationship between the anemia with low survival in patients with chronic renal failure undergoing the hemodialysis <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref8">Pfeffer et al., 2009</xref><xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref9">Singh et al., 2006</xref>. In recent years, the Erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA) has been widely used as a treatment for anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and patients with ESRD. However, the treatment of anemia results in the increased survival rates in these patients. According to the conducted clinical trial studies, the modified hemoglobin (Hb) rate to normal range through Erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESAs) will not lead to the improved outcomes in these patients <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1">Besarab et al., 1998</xref><xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref2">Dr&#252;eke et al., 2006</xref><xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref8">Pfeffer et al., 2009</xref><xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref9">Singh et al., 2006</xref>, so that the ratio of myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, stroke, hospitalization and mortality in a group with target hemoglobin level of 13g/dL is higher than the target hemoglobin level of 11g/dL in a randomized clinical trials <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref8">Pfeffer et al., 2009</xref>. Therefore, the higher dose of Erythropoietin in patients with higher target hemoglobin level leads to an increased risk of death and non-improved life quality compared to the group with lower target levels.</p>
      <p>According to a research by Elani Streja et al for investigating the relationship between the received dose of Erythropoietin and mortality in dialysis patients, there is a positive dose-response relationship between weekly dose of Erythropoietin drug and the risk of death. According to this study, the higher dose of Erythropoietin drug is along with increased mortality, so that compared to base group (group with weakly does of less than 6000 units), the ratio of mortality in patients with weekly doses of 6000 to less than 12,000 units is equal to (1.02 95% CI 0.94-1.1), and (1.08 95% CI 1-1.18) in group with a weekly dose of 12,000 to less than 18,000 units, and (1.17 95% CI 1.06-1.28) in group with a weekly dose of 18,000 to less than 24,000 units, and (1.27 95% CI 1.15-1.41) in group with a weekly dose of 24,000 to less than 30,000 units, and finally (1.52 95% CI 1.37 to 1.69) in group with a weekly dose of 30,000 units and higher <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref10">Streja et al., 2016</xref>. Therefore, the scientific guidelines are approved and it is suggested modifying the partial hemoglobin levels in dialysis patients by erythropoietin drug, but it is not recommended obtaining the same hemoglobin level as the healthy people's standard levels in these patients by Erythropoietin drug <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref2">Dr&#252;eke et al., 2006</xref>.</p>
    </sec>
    <sec id="s2">
      <title>Abbreviations</title>
      <p>CKD:Chronic kidney disease</p>
      <p>CI:Confidence Interval</p>
      <p>ESAs: Erythropoiesis-stimulating agent</p>
      <p>ESRD: End Stage Renal Disease</p>
    </sec>
  </body>
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