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The anemia of primary autonomic failure and its reversal with recombinant erythropoietinOBJECTIVE: To determine if chronic sympathetic deprivation is associated with anemia and a low erythropoietin response. DESIGN: Survey of the prevalence and characteristics of anemia in patients with severe primary autonomic failure. SETTING: A referral service for autonomic failure in a tertiary teaching hospital. PATIENTS: 84 patients with primary autonomic failure who had symptomatic orthostatic hypotension. INTERVENTION: Open-label trial with human recombinant erythropoietin. RESULTS: Anemia was present in 32 of 84 patients (38%; 95% Cl, 27% to 50%). Plasma norepinephrine levels, measured in patients standing upright, were lower in the patient group with lower hemoglobin levels. Mean values in 22 patients with a hemoglobin level of less than 120 g/L were as follows: hemoglobin, 108 g/L (range, 87 to 118 g/L); hematocrit, 0.33; corrected reticulocyte counts, 0.008; mean corpuscular volume, 89 fL (89 microns 3); serum iron, 16.5 mumol/L (92 micrograms/dL); total iron binding capacity, 43.3 mumol/L (242 micrograms/dL); ferritin, 184 micrograms/L; serum vitamin B12, 410 pmol/L (556 pg/mL); and serum folate, 22.7 nmol/L (10 ng/mL). No relation was found between serum erythropoietin and blood hemoglobin levels. In seven of nine patients with autonomic failure who had hemoglobin levels less than 120 g/L, serum erythropoietin levels decreased below the 95% confidence interval corresponding to patients with iron deficiency anemia. Therapy with recombinant erythropoietin improved mean hemoglobin levels (from 108 to 133 g/L) in all patients treated (n = 5) at relatively low doses (25 to 50 units/kg body weight, subcutaneously, three times a week). CONCLUSIONS: Our data support the hypothesis that the sympathetic nervous system stimulates erythropoiesis in humans because anemia is a frequent occurrence in patients with severe autonomic failure and is associated with a blunted erythropoietin response.
Document ID
20050000314
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Biaggioni, I.
(Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee)
Robertson, D.
Krantz, S.
Jones, M.
Haile, V.
Date Acquired
August 22, 2013
Publication Date
August 1, 1994
Publication Information
Publication: Annals of internal medicine
Volume: 121
Issue: 3
ISSN: 0003-4819
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: HL 36984
CONTRACT_GRANT: RR00095
CONTRACT_GRANT: HL14192
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Clinical Trial
NASA Discipline Regulatory Physiology
Non-NASA Center

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