[Anemia of chronic renal insufficiency. II. Effect of androgen therapy in 17 subjects treated with periodic hemodialysis].

Seventeen patients with severe anaemia due to renal insufficiency treated by periodical haemodialysis received high parenteral doses (7 mg/kg/week) of androgens for a period of 10 months. Kinetic studies of erythroid stemcells (plasma clot method), erythropoiesis (radio-iron kinetics, bone marrow scintigraphy) and haemolysis (autologous and homologous red cell life span) were performed before and after treatment. Complete failure was observed in 6 patients, slight improvement in 4 and distinctly satisfactory results in 7. In three cases relapse was noted after treatment was discontinued. Clinical effectiveness was due to correction of the erythropoietic defect, without changes in the degree of haemolysis. Virilization was the only side-effect recorded. All subjects whose anaemia improved, even to a slight degree, felt much better. The following parameters were found to be predictive of androgen effectiveness: absence of bilateral nephrectomy, young age, and relatively slight erythropoietic deficiency. The clinical results were unrelated to the initial number of erythroid stem cells and to their increase under androgen therapy.