Early responsiveness to continuous erythropoietin receptor activator predicts renal prognosis and is determined by a novel antioxidative marker in non-dialysis chronic kidney disease: a prospective, observational, single-center study.

BACKGROUND: Responsiveness to erythropoietin-stimulating agents (ESAs) is important for anemia management in chronic kidney disease (CKD). We assessed the effects of a continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (CERA) on renoprotection beyond anemia management and the correlation between the responsiveness to ESAs and oxidative stress markers in CKD. METHODS: This single-center, prospective, observational study was conducted over 24 months. We administered CERA to 35 non-dialysis patients with hemoglobin (Hb) < 11 g/dL and examined the results of the serum diacron-reactive oxygen metabolite (dROMs) test for oxidative stress markers and biological antioxidant potential (BAP) test for antioxidant markers. We then examined the renoprotective effects of CERA and the responsiveness to CERA. RESULTS: Eighteen patients experienced renal events (doubling of serum creatinine levels, decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate to < 6.0 mL/min/1.73 m2, or initiation of renal replacement therapy), seventeen of which survived. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that responsiveness to CERA during the initial 3-month treatment period was a good predictor of renal events. Moreover, a high response to CERA during the 3 months independently suppressed renal events (hazard ratio, 0.344). High BAP levels at baseline were significantly associated with high responsiveness to CERA during the initial 3-month treatment period. CONCLUSION: Responsiveness to CERA during the first 3 months was an important indicator of CKD progression. Moreover, BAP test results determined responsiveness to CERA. This is the first report to show how antioxidant levels can be a potential marker of CERA's ability to control anemia in CKD patients.

Multidisciplinary Team Care Delays the Initiation of Renal Replacement Therapy in Diabetes: A Five-year Prospective, Single-center Study.

Objective Although recent reports have highlighted the benefits of multidisciplinary team care (MTC) for chronic kidney disease (CKD) in slowing the progress of renal insufficiency, its long-term effects have not been evaluated for patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). We compared the renal survival rate between MTC and conservative care (CC). Methods In this five-year, single-center, prospective, observational study, we examined 24 patients (mean age 65.5±12.1 years old, men/women 18/6) with DM-induced CKD stage ≥3 in an MTC clinic. The control group included 24 random patients with DM (mean age 61.0±12.8 years old, men/women 22/2) who received CC. MTC was provided by a nephrologist and medical staff, and CC was provided by a nephrologist. Results In total, 10 MTC and 20 CC patients experienced renal events [creatinine doubling, initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT), or death due to end-stage CKD]. During the five-year observation period, there were significantly fewer renal events in the MTC group than in the CC group according to the cumulative incidence method (p=0.006). Compared to CC, MTC significantly reduced the need for urgent initiation of hemodialysis (relative risk reduction 0.79, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.107-0.964). On a multivariate analysis, MTC (hazard ratio [HR], 0.434, 95% CI 0.200-0.939) and the slope of the estimated glomerular filtration rate during the first year (HR, 0.429 per 1 mL/min/m2/year, 95% CI 0.279-0.661) were negatively associated with renal events. Conclusion MTC for DM-induced CKD is an effective strategy for delaying RRT. Long-term MTC can demonstrate reno-protective effects.