RECOMBINANT ERYTHROPOIETIN IMPROVES COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN CHRONIC-HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS

Psychometric performance was studied on two occasions in 18 chronic ha emodialysis patients. Nine patients treated with rHuEpo performed a ba ttery of psychometric tests before treatment, haemoglobin [mean (SD)] 5.8 (0.6) g/dl and after partial correction of anaemia, haemoglobin 9. 3 (1.28) g/dl. The same battery of psychometric tests was administered on two occasions to nine patients (haemoglobin 7.3 (1.2) g/dl) matche d with the treatment group for age, educational status and social clas s, who did not receive rHuEpo. In the rHuEpo-treated group, IQ, measur ed by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, improved by a mea n of 8.7 points (P < 0.01), while in the control group an improvement by a mean of 2.5 points was not significant. Comparison between the gr oups of the change in IQ score was significant (P = 0.04). There was n o change in the mean scores obtained in either group for the other psy chometric tests administered including the Paced Auditory Serial Addit ion Test, Rey auditory verbal learning, and Borkowski verbal fluency t est. These results indicate that anaemia makes a reversible contributi on to uraemic cognitive dysfunction.