title: The anemia of acute renal failure: association with oliguria and elevated blood urea.
abstract: Anemia is very frequent in patients with acute failure but the nature of the relationship between the two conditions has remained unclear. We studied all patients with well-documented acute renal failure seen in consultation by our nephrology division during 1991. Fifty-three of the 56 patients had at least mild anemia (hematocrit < 35%) at some point during their hospital stay. Forty-three of the patients had a hematocrit below 30% and 14 had a hematocrit below this level on admission. Twenty-four of the patients underwent major operations and all of these patients required blood transfusions. In this group there was a significant correlation between maximum serum urea and lowest hemoglobin (r = 0.4, p < .05) but no similar correlation between maximum creatinine and lowest hemoglobin. Oliguric patients had a mean lowest hemoglobin of 7.3 +/- 0.4 g/dL, which was significantly lower than the value for nonoliguric patients, 9.0 +/- 0.4 g/dL. This study confirms the presence of anemia in 91% of patients with acute renal failure and shows it to be related to rise in urea and presence of oliguria. Clearly, however, the anemia is multifactorial, since in one-quarter of the patients it precedes onset of renal failure.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hales
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Solez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kjellstrand
mesh_terms: D058186:Acute Kidney Injury / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D000740:Anemia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006400:Hematocrit; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009846:Oliguria / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014508:Urea / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D014508:Urea