Abstract
A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted to assess the causes, socio-demographic factors and the management of anemia in patients with CKD, admitted to the Dialysis Units of NHSL, Sri Jayawardenepura and Western Infirmary Hospitals. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethical Review Committee of the Faculty of Medicine, Colombo and NHSL to collect data from medical records of patients (N=150).Most of the patients were between 35 to 55 years and 72.6% were males. Our study represented most of the districts in Sri Lanka, the majority (55.3%) being from Colombo. Hypertension (27.3%) was identified as the leading cause in both males and females, while diabetes (21.3%) was the second commonest. 10.7% patients had both hypertension and diabetes. Other causes comprised of glomerular nephritis, polycystic kidney disease, obstructive kidney disease, SLE and Alport's syndrome. In 20% of patients the cause was not yet identified. 10% were found to have severe anemia and the main mode of management was blood transfusion. Later they were given recombinant erythropoietin (rEPO). 60% had moderate anemia of which 65.6% had received rEPO while 17.8% had not received any treatment. The commonest causes leading to Chronic Kidney Disease are hypertension and diabetes. Main treatment option of anemia was rEPO which was started mostly at hemoglobin levels less than 9g/dl, but according to DOQI guidelines it should be commenced when hemoglobin level is 11g/dl. [J Physiol Sci. 2008;58 Suppl:S114]
