Anemia is a common concomitant disease in patients with heart failure and is a cause for deteriorating prognosis and poor outcome of the disease. Anemia in the population of patients with heart failure is much more common than in the general population. It is estimated that it varies between 17 and 70% depending on whether the patients are hospitalized or not. The incidence of anemia among the hospitalized for acute heart failure patients in one Bulgarian study is 32.7%. The treatment of this concomitant state is defined by its etiology. The most common causes of anemia in heart failure are iron defficiency, chronic inflamation and chronic kidney disease. The treatment of anemia with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents was initially promising, but the results that came out later showed disappointing data. Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents increase the thrombotic risk, the incidence of stroke, although an increase in the level of hemoglobin is found.
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