Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2021; 9(15): 3680-3688
Published online May 26, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i15.3680
Roxadustat as treatment for a blood transfusion-dependent maintenance hemodialysis patient: A case report and review of literature
Min Fei, Xiang-Qiong Wen, Zhao-Lan Yu, Ting Kang, Wei-Hua Wu, San-Tao Ou
Min Fei, Xiang-Qiong Wen, Zhao-Lan Yu, Ting Kang, Wei-Hua Wu, San-Tao Ou, Department of Nephrology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Min Fei, Xiang-Qiong Wen, Zhao-Lan Yu, Ting Kang, Wei-Hua Wu, San-Tao Ou, Sichuan Clinical Research Center for Nephropathy, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Ou ST and Wen XQ treated the patient; Yu ZL followed up with the patient and collected the clinical data; Wu WH analyzed and interpreted the clinical data; Fei M wrote the first draft; Kang T and Fei M wrote the final draft; All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Supported by Sichuan Clinical Research Center for Nephropathy, No. 2019YFS0537-3.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: San-Tao Ou, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Nephrology, The Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, No. 25 Taiping Street, Luzhou 646000, Sichuan Province, China. ousantao@163.com
Received: December 21, 2020
Peer-review started: December 21, 2020
First decision: January 17, 2021
Revised: January 25, 2021
Accepted: March 15, 2021
Article in press: March 15, 2021
Published online: May 26, 2021
Processing time: 140 Days and 19.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Anemia is a common complication of chronic kidney disease, often in combination with increased morbidity and mortality. Treatment of anemia in advanced chronic kidney disease includes iron replacement and administration of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs). However, anemia remains undertreated because of concerns of the safety of ESAs. Roxadustat is an oral hypoxia-inducible factor-prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor (HIF-PHI) that stimulates erythropoiesis and regulates iron metabolism. We present a case in which Roxadustat was used for the treatment of a blood transfusion-dependent maintenance hemodialysis patient. This case highlights that increasing HIF activity with small-molecule HIF-PHIs such as Roxadustat is an innovative therapeutic approach for anemia.