Erythropoietin in children with chronic renal failure on dialytic and non-dialytic therapy.

The serum values of erythropoietin and relationship with hemoglobin was studied in 29 children with chronic renal failure. 10 of the patients were receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), 12 were on regular haemodialysis treatment (RHT) and 7 children were not on any form of dialysis treatment (ND). Serum erythropoietin was estimated using fetal mouse liver bioassay. The mean serum erythropoietin concentration in the three groups of patients were within the normal range but were inappropriately low for the degree of anemia (CAPD 19.6 +/- 8.0 mu/ml, RHT 25.7 +/- 13.2 mu/ml, ND 21.9 +/- 11.0 mu/ml. The haemoglobin value of (7.0 +/- 1.3 gm/dl) in the CAPD group was higher than in the RHT group (6.4 +/- 1.5 gm/dl), but this difference was not statistically significant (p greater than 0.1). In the non-dialysed patients, the mean haemoglobin value was 11.32 +/- 2.31 gm/dl and this was significantly higher than the values in the CAPD and RHT patients (p less than 0.05). No correlation was found between serum erythropoietin and haemoglobin in the three groups of patients.