Table 1.
Baseline profile of participants overall and by gender
| Characteristic | Overall | Men | Women | p-value | No EPO | On EPO | p-value |
| N | 95 | 67 | 28 | 67 | 28 | ||
| Males sex, n | 67 | 67 | 0 | 49 | 18 | 0.46 | |
| Mean age, years (SD) | 47.6 (14.3) | 48.5 (12.7) | 45.2 (17.7) | 0.38 | 47.9 (14.6) | 46.8 (13.7) | 0.74 |
| Median duration in dialysis, months (min-max) | 6.5 (4–64) | 8 (4–64) | 4 (4–54) | 0.32 | 5.0 (4–11) | 8.8 (4.5–22.7) | 0.10 |
| Mean weight, kg (SD) | 61 (11.1) | 62.9 (11.1) | 56.8 (9.8) | 0.008 | 59 (9) | 66 (13) | 0.007 |
| Hypertension, n | 93 | 65 | 28 | >0.99 | 65 | 28 | >0.99 |
| Diabetes, n | 28 | 17 | 11 | 0.27 | 17 | 11 | 0.22 |
| HIV infection, n | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0.67 | 4 | 2 | >0.99 |
| Tuberculosis, n | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0.63 | 3 | 2 | 0.63 |
| Mean hemoglobin level, g/dl (SD) | 8.6 (1.9) | 8.7 (1.7) | 8.3 (2.4) | 0.35 | 8.3 (1.9) | 9.2 (1.7) | 0.05 |
| Hemoglobin level <11 g/dl, n | 75 | 55 | 20 | 0.24 | 55 | 20 | 0.28 |
| Mean corpuscular volume, fl (SD) | 78.7 (7.7) | 77.8 (7.7) | 80.8 (7.4) | 0.07 | 78.4 (8.5) | 79.3 (5.4) | 0.62 |
| Microcytosis, n | 56 | 40 | 16 | 0.82 | 39 | 17 | >0.99 |
| Mean corpuscular hemoglobin, pg (SD) | 26.8 (2.5) | 26.7 (2.5) | 27.2 (2.3) | 0.40 | 26.8 (2.7) | 27.0 (2.0) | 0.68 |
| Hypochromia, n | 37 | 26 | 11 | 0.96 | 34 | 15 | 0.83 |
| Iron treatment, n | 17 | 12 | 5 | >0.99 | 2 | 15 | <0.0001 |
| Erythropoietin treatment, n | 0.69 | ||||||
| None | 67 | 49 | 18 | ||||
| Occasionally | 17 | 11 | 6 | ||||
| Regularly | 11 | 7 | 4 |
EPO — Erythropoietin; HIV — Human Immunodeficiency Virus; SD — Standard Deviation.