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ShareMay 31, 2011 — In a new article in PLoS Medicine, Anoop Shah of University College London and colleagues report that, in people with stable coronary disease, there were threshold haemoglobin values below which mortality increased in a graded, continuous fashion. As well as a systematic review and statistical analysis of previous studies, the researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of patients from a prospective observational cohort.
Their findings suggest that there are thresholds of haemoglobin that are associated with increased risk of mortality in patients with angina or myocardial infarction, and, though limited by the observational nature of its results, the study supports the rationale for conducting future randomised controlled trials to assess whether haemoglobin levels are causal and whether clinicians should intervene to increase haemoglobin levels, for example by oral iron supplementation.
The authors say that "Irrespective of a possible causal, reversible relationship between
haemoglobin concentration and mortality, further research is warranted to assess what incremental prognostic value haemoglobin might offer in risk stratifying patients with stable coronary disease."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
- Anoop D. Shah, Owen Nicholas, Adam D. Timmis, Gene Feder, Keith R. Abrams, Ruoling Chen, Aroon D. Hingorani, Harry Hemingway. Threshold Haemoglobin Levels and the Prognosis of Stable Coronary Disease: Two New Cohorts and a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLoS Medicine, 2011; 8 (5): e1000439 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000439
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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