This is a human subject research study conducted in patients undergoing dialysis treatment with darbepoetin alfa at Intermountain Utah Dialysis and Intermountain Medical Center Dialysis Services. The purpose is to test a dose recommendation algorithm that may reduce hemoglobin variability and drug cost.
Hemoglobin cycling is an outcome of treating long-term dialysis patients for anemia using erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), and represents a conundrum for practitioners. While patients with low hemoglobin levels suffer from anemia, high hemoglobin levels may lead to blood clots and subsequent health risks. The current protocol for ESA dosing often results in suboptimal dosing that leads to hemoglobin cycling, which can have a negative impact on patient survival. To this end, we have developed a personalized method for ESA dosing that controls anemia in dialysis patients that is similar to the commercial product sold by PhySoft. Our method, the Dialysis Anemia Treatment Model, uses a mathematical model for erythropoiesis that takes each patient's physiology into account, predicting the optimal dose of ESA for that patient to prevent hemoglobin cycling. The goal of this computer-aided approach is to reduce hemoglobin cycling and the amount of drug used by predicting optimal doses to keep the patient's hemoglobin within the desired range. This is a human subject research study to validate the model in the clinic and demonstrate that it is able to minimize hemoglobin cycling in patients and reduce the amount of ESA drug administered.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
80
Patients will receive doses calculated by the algorithm instead of by the standard of care procedures. Model-based Aranesp doses will be computed at the same time that doses based on the dialysis anemia protocol are determined. The model-based doses will be administered instead of the protocol-based doses and in the same way and at the same time as the protocol-based doses would have been. The model-based dosing will be more flexible than the protocol-based dosing. Some constraints in the protocol-based dosing were created to prevent patients from achieving high Hb levels. The model-based dosing will also prevent these high Hb values but will do so by predicting a patient's Hb level into the future and then using these predictions to determine doses to reduce Hb variability and to reduce the amount of Aranesp used.
Current standard of care guidelines are followed for erythropoiesis-stimulating agents to control anemia in dialysis patients
Intermountain Kidney Clinic
Murray, Utah, United States
Dialysis Services
Murray, Utah, United States
Reduction of hemoglobin cycling in dialysis patients
Reduction of hemoglobin cycling
Time frame: 90 days after the intervention
Time hemoglobin levels are maintained within acceptable range
Time hemoglobin levels are maintained within acceptable range
Time frame: 90 days after the intervention
Reduction in quantity of drug administered to patients
Reduction in quantity of drug administered to patients
Time frame: 90 days after the intervention
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