In patients with chronic kidney disease, early complete correction of anemia does not reduce the risk of cardiovascular events.

In this trial of just over six hundred patients with estimated Glomerular Filtration Rates of 15 to 35 mls/minute, it didn't help at all. The end-point of eight mixed cardiovascular events stayed negative whether you used erythropoeitin to increase haemoglobin to a normal value or to something just below it. And if you're wondering why there seems to be a rash of kidney-related papers in the journals this week, it’s obviously because you haven't been in San Diego. If you had, you'd have immediately noticed that the streets were thronged with conferring nephrologists - always a striking sight.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/355/20/2071