Anaemia and the heart

Anaemia is common in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). Its prevalence increases with disease severity as a consequence of renal insufficiency, cytokine production, blood loss, iron deficiency, malnutrition and/or plasma volume overload. Anaemia can contribute to worsening of CHF. There is a nonlinear relationship (U-shaped curve) between haemoglobin and survival. Prevalence of anaemia among elderly people with acute myocardial infarction is high and is associated with more frequent in-hospital events, including death. Anaemia is also associated with higher in-hospital mortality rate after coronary bypass surgery and with all-cause and cardiac mortality after percutaneous coronary interventions. Patients with anaemia and cardiovascular disease have a higher mortality rate after cardiac/noncardiac surgery as compared to those with anaemia but without cardiovascular disease or those with cardiovascular disease but without anaemia. However, not all authors confirmed these findings. Therefore, multicentre trials to clarify this issue are urgently needed. Pleiotropic effects of recombinant human erythropoietin include reduction of myocardial and cerebral infarct size without an increase in haematocrit, neovascularization as well as mobilization of endothelial progenitor cells.