The role of protein in the development of chronic disease anemia in patients with chronic cardiac failure

Abstract

The review of the current literature presents data on chronic disease anemia (CDA), a topical problem of internal medicine belonging to the group of iron-deficient anemia and taking its name from the inflammatory process behind its pathogenesis. It is also called inflammation anemia or cytokine-mediated anemia. This condition is of primary importance in connection with associated, according to recent epidemiological studies , with high prevalence of CDA that impairs quality of life, aggravates prognosis, and increases mortality. Mechanisms of CDA development are discussed with special reference to three trigger factors, viz. cytokines, erythropoietin, and the recently discovered protein hepcidin. The latter has attracted especially much attention in the past years. Iron-containing medications being inefficient in the patients with CDA, other modern approaches to their treatment designed to directly influence the pathophysiological processes behind the disease are considered with special emphasis laid on the enhancement of ferroportin activity and reduction of hepcidin synthesis.