Introduction:
Chronic kidney disease-associated anemia occurs due to low production of erythropoietin. The routine standard of care for anemia is erythropoietin and IV iron. Recently, a new oral drug was approved for management of CKD anemia- Desidustat, belonging to class HIF-PHIs that endogenously produces erythropoietin. This study was aimed to seeing real-world experience with Desidustat.
Methods:
Patients who were diagnosed with CKD anemia with or without erythropoietin therapy were given desidustat. Desidustat was given at a dose of 100 mg three times weekly, and patients were followed up monthly to check for a rise in Hb. Dose adjustment was done according to the Hb level.
Results:
In the current study, 52 patients were enrolled. In this study, the majority of patients are pre-dialysis (n=52, 86.53%) and dialysis-dependent ( n= 7, 13.46%). Of dialysis-dependent patients (n=5, 71.42%) on 3/week dialysis treatment. Diabetic kidney disease was the most common cause of CKD in current study (n = 34, 65.38%), Hypertension ( n=15, 28.85%), ADPKD (n=2, 3.85%) and FSGS in 1 case. Of 34 patients 6 (17.64%) are suffering from proliferative diabetic retinopathy. As a part of CKD Anemia treatment IV Iron ( n=20, 38.46%), and Erythropoetin (n=13, 25%). Patients received Desidustat 100 mg thrice daily (n= 41, 78.85%), 50 mg thrice weekly (n=10, 19.23%) and one patients required 150 mg thrice weekly. Tolerability to the desidustat therapy is very good (n=49,94.23%) of three patients didn’t maintained compliance 1 had constipation and throat pain no other adverse event was observed. In our study we observed significant improvement in Hb level post baseline 1.19 gm/dl (p<0.05, paired t Test). Majortiy of patients remain stable with 100 mg dose of desidustat. However, some (n=9, 17.30%) patients required dose change. Of this (n=6, 12%), required dose reduction, (n=2, 4%) required dose increase and 1 patients didn’t responded to desidustat treatment lead to treatment stoppage. Rise of Hb in current study with Desidustat is stable showed increasing trend. However, in this real world experience regrous follow up was not maintained which is a limitation.
Conclusions:
Desidustat significantly increase the Hb in CKD Anemia without causing severe adverse drug reaction. More studies are required to assess the long term efficacy and safety of Desidustat in DD- CKD patients.
I have no potential conflict of interest to disclose.
I did not use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.