Clinical pharmacology of iron‐sucrose, androgen, carnitine, insulin‐like gorowth factor‐1 and zinc

Abstract

Anaemia is a common problem in patients with renal failure. For the past 10 years, recombinant human erythropoietin (r-HuEPO) has been the mainstay of treatment for anaemic patients on dialysis.Many factors, including infection, inflammation, hyperparathyroidism, aluminium toxicity, vitamin B,J folate and iron deficiency, can reduce the response to r-HuEPO. The use of other iron formulations, androgen, carnitine, insulin-like growth factor (1GF)-1 and zinc may have a role in augmenting the response to r-HuEPO.The pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, side-effects, costs and availability of nandrolone decanoate, l-camitine, iron sucrose, IGF-1 and zinc will be discussed