[Osmotic resistance in erythrocytes in patients with chronic renal insufficiency]

Anemia, almost always found in patients with the end-stage chronic renal failure, had been first related to secondary hyperparathyroidism in 1934. Parathormone leads to anemia in different ways, one being the lowered osmotic resistance. The osmotic resistance of erythrocytes in 57 patients with a progressive stage of chronic renal failure treated at the Hemodialysis Unit of the General Hospital Osijek was examined. The aim of the study was to establish the relationship between osmotic resistance and parathormonal level. The average value of the osmotic resistance median (ORM) in erythrocytes of the patients with chronic renal failure (0.37 +/- 0.03) was lower than in healthy probands (0.39 +/- 0.02). The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). No correlation was found between the C-terminal parathormone and the average values of erythrocytic ORM in the whole group or in the subgroup of 7 patients with pathological values of erythrocytic ORM. In patients treated with calcium antagonists, the average erythrocytic ORM value was not significantly lower than in patients who were not on such medications. Allowing the assumption that active parathormone has a high share in the C-terminal parathormone, we conclude that the lowered osmotic resistance of erythrocytes is not necessarily found in patients with chronic renal failure.