Table 3. Hazard ratios of death and composite endpoint for mid (34.5 to <39.0%) versus low (30.0 to <34.5%) hematocrit target treatment strategies, USRDS 2006-2008.

Intention-to-treat analysis*	All patients					Patients with Hct >30% at baseline
	Patient months	Events	HR	95% CI		Patient months	Events	HR	95% CI
Death only
Low Hct	79,240	2,292	1 (ref.)			68,225	1,808	1 (ref.)
Mid Hct	86,828	2,738	1.05	0.99	1.11	79,258	2,295	1.07	1.01	1.14
Composite
Low Hct	74,809	3,281	1 (ref.)			64,484	2,662	1 (ref.)
Mid Hct	84,311	3,825	1.03	0.98	1.08	74,721	3,244	1.04	0.99	1.09
Per-protocol analysis∼
Death only
Low Hct	17,849	683	1 (ref.)			15,311	529	1 (ref.)
Mid Hct	29,811	1,044	0.98	0.78	1.24	26,998	904	1.02	0.79	1.32
Composite
Low Hct	17,295	948	1 (ref.)			14,857	763	1 (ref.)
Mid Hct	28,556	1,484	1.00	0.81	1.24	25,893	1,285	1.01	0.81	1.26

USRDS: United States Renal Data System, Hct: hematocrit, HR: hazard ratio, CI: confidence interval.

Composite outcome is death or hospitalization for MI, stroke, or congestive heart failure

^*Adjusted for baseline variables including age at ESRD onset, race, gender, US geographic region, dialysis chain membership, predialysis epoetin use and hematocrit level, baseline hematocrit level, epoetin dose, and iron dose, baseline patient BMI, diabetes status, Charlson Index score, cardiovascular comorbidities, tobacco use, drug/alcohol dependence, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other severe conditions including amputation, inability to ambulate, and inability to transfer.

^∼Further adjusted (via inverse-probability weighting) for time-varying variables including hematocrit value, change in hematocrit, hospitalization, epoetin withhold, epoetin dose, and iron dose.