Key findings of 4 landmark ESA studies and the authors' findings.

Study	Patients	Target Hct	Primary outcome	Hazard ratio (CI)
NHT, 1993-1996	Hemodialysis patients with coexisting CHF or CAD	27-33% vs. 39-45%	All-cause mortality or nonfatal MI	1.28 (0.9-1.9), Low Hct arm as ref
CHOIR, 2003-2006	Predialysis CKD patients	33.9 vs. 40.5%	All-cause mortality, nonfatal MI, hospitalization for CHF, or stroke	1.34 (1.03-1.74). Low Hct arm as ref
CREATE, 2000-2004	Predialysis CKD patients without advanced cardiovascular disease	31.5-34.5% vs. 39-45%	All-cause mortality, CHF, hospitalization, non-fatal MI, or nonfatal stroke	0.78 (0.53-1.14), High Hct arm as ref
TREAT, 2004-2009	Predialysis CKD patients with type II diabetes	Rescue at <27% vs. 39%	All-cause mortality, MI, myocardial ischemia, heart failure, and stroke	1.05 (0.94-1.17), rescue as ref
Zhang, et al, 2006-2009	Hemodialysis patients with both diabetes and cardiovascular diseases	30-34.5% vs. 34.5-39%	Earliest of death, hospitalization for MI, CHF, and stroke	1.03 (0.98, 1.08), Low Hct arm as ref

NHT: Normal Hematocrit Trial. CHOIR: Correction of Hemoglobin and Outcomes in Renal Insufficiency. CREATE: Cardio-vascular Risk Reduction by Early Anemia Treatment with Epoetin Beta. TREAT: Trial to Reduce Cardiovascular Events with Aranesp Therapy. CI: confidence interval. MI: myocardial infarction. CHF: congestive heart failure. CAD: ischemic heart disease