Diagnosis and Treatment of Anemia of Chronic Kidney Disease in the Primary Care Setting: A Primer for Nurse Practitioners

Anemia of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity, health care costs, and mortality. Both early CKD and its attendant anemia may be asymptomatic and thus often go undetected. Appropriate anemia treatment may improve cardiovascular prognosis, physical activity, and quality of life in CKD patients not requiring dialysis. Primary care nurse practitioners are ideally positioned to detect and treat CKD-related anemia. This review discusses the pathophysiology, consequences, and primary detection and management of anemia of CKD.