Myocardial disease, anemia and heart failure

Many patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) fail to respond to maximal CHF therapy and progress to end stage CHF with many hospitalizations, very poor quality of life, end stage renal failure, or die of cardiovascular complications within a short time. One factor that has generally been ignored in many of these patients is the fact that they are often anemic. The anemia is due mainly to renal failure but also to the inhibitory effects of cytokines on the bone marrow. Anemia itself may further worsen the cardiac function and make the patients resistant to standard CHF therapies. Indeed anemia has been associated with increased severity of CHF, increased hospitalization, worse cardiac function and functional class, higher doses of diuretics, worsening of renal function and reduced quality of life. In both controlled and uncontrolled studies the correction of the anemia with erythropoietin (EPO) and oral or IV iron is associated with improvement in all these parameters. EPO itself may also play a direct role in improving the heart unrelated to the improvement of the anemia. Anemia may also play a role in the worsening of coronary heart disease even without CHF.