Abhi Kshirsagar, MD, MPH, the Covington Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, participated in the “Controversies in optimal anemia management: Conclusions from a Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Conference.”
Controversies Conferences review the latest evidence, explore new and ongoing controversies, assess change implications for the current KDIGO anemia guideline, and propose a research agenda. The first conference focused mainly on iron-related issues, including the contribution of disordered iron homeostasis to the anemia of chronic kidney disease, diagnostic challenges, available and emerging iron therapies, treatment targets, and patient outcomes. The second conference will discuss issues more specifically related to erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, including epoetins, and hypoxia-inducible factor-prolyl hydroxylase inhibitors.
This paper provides a concise overview of the consensus points and controversies resulting from the first conference, and prioritizes key questions that need to be answered by future research.