Mircescu 2006.

Methods	Study design: parallel RCT Duration of study: 1 March 2004 to 31 January 2005 Duration of follow‐up: 24 weeks
Participants	Country: Romania Setting: multicentre HD 6 months (Kt/v 1.2); Hb > 10 g/dL; adequate iron stores; ferritin 100 to 88 ng/mL; TSAT 20 to 50%; once weekly SC EPO for 2 months before enrolment ≥ 18 years Number: treatment group 1 (104); treatment group 2 (103) Mean age ± SD (years): treatment group 1 (49.6 ± 13.3); treatment group 2 (48.0 ± 12.9) Sex (M/F): treatment group 1 (57/47); treatment group 2 (62/41) Exclusion criteria: CHF; hepatic disease; CRP > 12 mg/L; severe hyperparathyroidism (PTH > 800 ng/mL); serum B₁₂ or folate deficiency; poor BP control; malnutrition; albumin < 40 g/L; blood transfusions in last 2 months
Interventions	Treatment group 1 rHuEPO: SC every 2 weeks, same cumulative dose administered every other week for 24 weeks Treatment group 2 rHuEPO SC once/wk, continued the previous once weekly schedule Other information Dose adjustments were made to maintain Hb levels in both groups Co‐interventions Iron therapy was continued according to Romanian Best Practice Guidelines
Outcomes	Final or change in Hb Number reaching target HB Change in median EPO dose Adverse events
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Renal Registry Romania. Numbered containers
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	Central randomisation. Renal Registry Romania
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No blinding but outcome of Hb unlikely to be influenced by lack of blinding
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	No blinding but outcome of Hb unlikely to be influenced by lack of blinding
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	4/207 excluded from analyses (4 withdrew after randomisation (2 from each group)), unlikely to influence results
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	No information on mortality
Other bias	High risk	Funding for laboratory tests from F. Hoffman la Roche Ltd