This exploratory analysis of the MDRD study indicates a slower mean GFR decline in women as compared with men. The slower mean GFR decline and suggestive evidence of a lesser beneficial effect of the low protein diet and low blood pressure interventions in women suggest that gender differences should be considered in trials of the effects of these interventions on the progression of renal disease. Also, the participation of women in the MDRD study was excellent and equivalent to that of men.

Modified Ivy bleeding time (template) and platelet aggregation to ADP, epinephrine, and collagen were studied in 26 uremic patients who had not recently ingested anti-platelet drugs. Regardless of the aggregating agent used, the abnormalities in platelet aggregation were often mild, even with advanced uremia, and frequently less severe than the effects of common anti-platelet drugs. The inhibition of collagen-induced aggregation was significantly correlated with both increased bleeding time and blood urea nitrogen. Platelet aggregation was not discriminative between clinically bleeding and non-bleeding groups of patients, but the bleeding time was helpful in this regard. In certain cases, the aggregometric patterns differed between drug-induced and uremic thrombocytopathies. Platelet aggregometry appears to be of little help clinically in assessing the severity of the uremic bleeding diathesis.

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