Sikole 1993

Methods	Study design: RCT Study duration: NS
Participants	Setting: University of Skopje Country: Macedonia Stage of CKD: HD Number: epoetin beta (19), no treatment (19) Mean age; range (years): epoetin beta (47.6; 25 to 70), no treatment (48.3; 23 to 69) Sex (M/F): epoetin beta (10/9), placebo (11/8) Other characteristics: anaemia (HCT< 28%) or need for regular blood transfusions; adequate iron status Exclusion criteria: iron, folic acid or vitamin B12 deficiency; severe infection; malignant or systematic disease; acute liver infection; uncontrolled hypertension; epilepsy; pregnancy; haemolytic uraemic syndrome; thrombocytosis (> 500,000 mm³)
Interventions	Treatment group Epoetin beta SC to attain HCT 30% to 35% for 12 months Control group No treatment Iron supplementation NS
Outcomes	Primary trial outcome Left ventricular hypertrophy at 12 months Outcomes extracted for meta‐analysis None
Notes	Funding: Boehringer Mannheim Trials registration: not applicable Contact with authors: not contacted
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 described
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	2/40 lost to follow‐up (5%). As this was < 10% this was judged low risk
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	Data for cardiovascular events not available
Other bias	Low risk	None apparent