Van Biesen 2005

Methods	Study design: RCT Study duration: NS
Participants	Setting: University Hospital Ghent Country: Belgium Stage of CKD: kidney transplant recipients Number: epoetin beta (22), no treatment (18) Mean age ± SD (years): epoetin beta (43.5 ± 16.5), no treatment (47.5 ± 16.5) Sex (M/F): epoetin beta (11/11), no treatment (11/7) Other characteristics: NS Exclusion criteria: NS
Interventions	Treatment group Epoetin beta SC to target Hb levels of 12.5 g/dL for 3 months Control group No treatment No treatment Iron supplementation NS
Outcomes	Primary study outcome Hb levels Outcomes extracted for meta‐analysis Transfusion
Notes	Funding: NS Trials registration: not applicable Contact with authors: no record of contact
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	Unclear risk	Not described
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	Data for cardiovascular events not available
Other bias	Low risk	None apparent