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

Anemia almost always found in patients with end-stage chronic renal failure has long been known to be related to secondary hyperparathyroidism. Parathormone leads to anemia in different ways, one being the lowered osmotic resistance. In the present paper we report on the osmotic resistance of erythrocytes in 57 patients with a progressive stage of chronic renal failure treated at the Hemodialysis Centre of the Osijek General Hospital. The aim of our study was to establish the relationship between the osmotic resistance and parathormonal level. The average value of the osmotic resistance median (ORM) in erythrocytes of patients with chronic renal failure (0.37 +/- 0.03) was lower than in healthy probands (0.39 +/- 0.02). The difference was statistically significant (t = 2.93, p less than 0.01). No correlation between C-terminal parathormone and the average values of erythrocytic ORM in the whole group or in the subgroup of 7 patients with pathologic values of erythrocytic ORM was found. In patients treated with calcium antagonists, the average value of erythrocytic ORM was not significantly lower than in patients not on these drugs. Allowing the assumption that active parathormone has a high share in C-terminal parathormone, we conclude that the lowered osmotic resistance of erythrocytes is not necessarily found in patients with chronic renal failure.