title: Recombinant human erythropoietin for a Jehovah's Witness with anemia of thermal injury.
abstract: We report the use of recombinant human erythropoietin (rh-Ep) as an alternative to transfusion therapy in a burn victim who was a Jehovah's Witness and refused blood transfusion. Despite endogenous elevated erythropoietin levels, the patient was reticulocytopenic and administration of rh-Ep was accompanied by a 10-fold increase in reticulocyte response and a rise in hemoglobin from 7.4 to 10.4 g/dl over a 12-day period. We suggest that the exogenously administered erythropoietin overcame a clinically inadequate endogenous erythropoietin response.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Boshkov
authors.forename: E E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Tredget
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Janowska-Wieczorek
mesh_terms: D000740:Anemia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D002056:Burns / Q000150:complications*; D002835:Christianity / Q000523:psychology; D004921:Erythropoietin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012156:Reticulocytes / Q000473:pathology; D016312:Treatment Refusal / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D004921:Erythropoietin