Aim: i.v. iron therapy is more effective in maintaining adequate iron status in haemodialysis (HD) patients than oral iron therapy (OIT). However, data on lower doses of i.v. iron therapy are insufficient.
Methods: A non-randomized, open-label study was performed to compare the efficacy of low-dose (<or=50 mg/week of iron sucrose) i.v. iron therapy (LD-IVIT) with OIT in HD patients with 100-800 microg/L serum ferritin levels over 4 months.
Results: Eighty-nine patients in the LD-IVIT group (40 men, 49 women; aged 61 +/- 13 years) and 30 patients in the oral iron therapy group (17 men, 13 women; aged 59 +/- 7 years) were evaluated. After 4 months of each treatment, serum ferritin levels increased from 398 +/- 137 to 529 +/- 234 microg/L in the LD-IVIT group (P < 0.01) but decreased from 351 +/- 190 to 294 +/- 175 microg/L in the OIT group (P < 0.01). In the LD-IVIT group, transferrin saturation (from 28% +/- 11% to 30% +/- 14%, P = 0.49), weekly doses of recombinant human erythropoietin (from 5822 +/- 2354 to 5636 +/- 2306 IU/week, P = 0.48) and haemoglobin (from 101 +/- 9 to 103 +/- 9 g/L, P = 0.15) levels remained stable.
Conclusion: LD-IVIT may be one of the regimens that may be considered for maintaining iron status in HD patients. However, efficacy of LD-IVIT should be verified by further randomized study.