Parathyroid hormone may be an early predictor of low serum hemoglobin concentration in patients with not advanced stages of chronic kidney disease

Background Parathyroid hormone (PTH) has been associated with anemia only in dialysis patients with severe hyperparathyroidism. Whether an association between PTH and hemoglobin also exists in patients with chronic kidney disease not on dialysis (CKD-patients) is still unclear. In this study we evaluated the association between PTH and hemoglobin in CKD-patients without severe secondary hyperparathyroidism. Methods Hospitalized patients and outpatients (N = 979) were retrospectively evaluated and categorized according to PTH quartile and serum hemoglobin (< 12.0, < 11.0, < 10.0 g/dl). Gender, diabetes, glomerular filtration rate (GFR), hemoglobin, PTH, markers of mineral metabolism, inflammation, iron status and nutrition were variables of adjustment in univariate and multivariate analysis. Results An inverse association (p = 0.001) was observed between PTH and hemoglobin in patients as a whole, in diabetics, and in patients with GFR <= 60 ml/min. PTH was the single predictor of low hemoglobin in patients as a whole (unstandardized beta -2.12; p = 0.005), in diabetics (unstandardized beta -8.86; p = 0.007) and in patients with GFR <= 60 ml/min (unstandardized beta -2.52; p = 0.006). For each increase of quartile of PTH the risk of having hemoglobin level < 10.0 mg/dl was more than doubled [hazard ratio (HR) 2.79, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 2.00-3.88; p = 0.001]. The receiver operating characteristic curve showed that PTH >= 122 pg/ml had 67 % sensitivity and 75 % specificity in predicting hemoglobin level < 10.0 g/dl with area under the curve of 0.758 (95 % CI 0.73-0.78). Conclusions This study shows a significant inverse association between PTH and hemoglobin levels across the whole spectrum of non-dialysis CKD and a doubled risk of having serum hemoglobin < 10.0 mg/dl in the absence of severely deranged PTH concentration. These findings may have clinical relevance in ascertaining the cause of unexplained low hemoglobin levels in CKD-patients.