Li 2008d

Methods	Study design: RCT Study duration: NS
Participants	Setting: single centre Country: Taiwan Stage of CKD: PD Number: epoetin alfa (23), darbepoetin alfa (22) Mean age ± SD (years): epoetin alfa (48.0 ± 11.15), darbepoetin alfa (49.5 ± 9.75) Sex (M/F): epoetin alfa (8/15), darbepoetin alfa (12/10) Other characteristics: existing epoetin therapy; adequate iron stores Exclusion criteria: receiving treatment for grand mal epilepsy or had uncontrolled hypertension (DBP > 100 mm Hg); congestive heart failure (New York Heart Association class III or IV); clinical evidence of severe hyperparathyroidism (iPTH ≥ 800 pg/mL); haematologic or systemic infection or inflammatory disease; current active liver disease; current active peritonitis; current malignancy that might interfere with the erythropoietic response; psychiatric, addictive, or any disorder that compromised the ability to give informed consent for participation in this study were also excluded; pregnant or breast‐feeding women; RBC transfusion to treat anaemia within 1 month prior to enrolment; major surgery or androgen therapy within 3 months prior to enrolment in the study
Interventions	Treatment group Epoetin alfa SC aiming for Hb level maintained within a target range of ± 1.0 g/dL of their baseline Hb level between 9.5 to 12.5 g/dL for 6 months Control group Darbepoetin alfa SC aiming for Hb level maintained within a target range of ± 1.0 g/dL of their baseline Hb level between 9.5 to 12.5 g/dL for 6 months Iron supplementation IV
Outcomes	Primary trial outcome Mean change in Hb level between the screening/baseline and evaluation period Outcomes extracted for meta‐analysis All‐cause mortality
Notes	Funding: Kirin Pharmaceutical Trials registration: NS Contact with authors: contacted (no reply or data received)
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not described
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not described
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Open‐label
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not reported
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	4/23 lost from epoetin alfa arm (17%) and 4/22 lost from darbepoetin alfa arm (17%). As this was > 10% this was judged as high risk
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	Data for cardiovascular outcomes not available
Other bias	Low risk	None apparent