Researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital publish new studies and findings in the area of dialysis.

"Context Patients undergoing dialysis at higher altitude receive lower erythropoietin doses, yet achieve higher hemoglobin concentrations. Increased iron availability caused by activation of hypoxia- induced factors at higher altitude may explain this finding," scientists in the United States report (see also Dialysis).

"Hypoxia- induced factors are also involved in other pathways that may affect morbidity and mortality. To study whether mortality differed by altitude in patients initiating dialysis. Setting, and Participants Retrospective cohort of patients initiating dialysis in the United States between 1995 and 2004. Patients were stratified by the average elevation of their residential zip code. Covariates included age, sex, race, Medicaid coverage, dialysis modality, comorbidities, and reported laboratory measurements. We constructed proportional hazards models of all- cause mortality, stratifying by year, and censoring patients at 5 years from first dialysis, at the end of the database ( December 31, 2004), or loss to follow- up. We also compared age- and sex- adjusted standardized mortality rates of US patients receiving dialysis with the general population. Main Outcome Measure Mortality from any cause. A total of 804 812 patients initiated dialysis and were followed up for a median of 1.78 years. Crude mortality rates per 1000 person- years were 220.1 at an altitude lower than 76 m ( 6000 ft). After multivariable adjustment, compared with patients living at an altitude of lower than 76 m, the relative mortality rates ...