mircera or eprex

[dtandukar]

Dear all,

Mircera or Eprex - which is better? please share your experience.

Best regards
Deependra

[billybags]

When my husband first went on to dialysis CAPD he had to take Epo once a week, that worked fine. He then went on to HD for about 3 months and was given Mercia once a month. Since being back on PD he is still taking Mercia once a month. We had misgivings about going from once a week to once a month. A week before his injection is due, he does flag a little. I wondered if it was a cost cutting exercise, I still can not understand how it lasts you for a month. I would also like to hear how other people are doing. I think I posted this months ago.

[dtandukar]

I went through a paper:
Efficacy of Intravenous Methoxy Polyethylene Glycol-Epoetin Beta Administered Every 2 Weeks Compared With Epoetin Administered 3 Times Weekly in Patients Treated by Hemodialysis or Peritoneal Dialysis: A Randomized Trial

Marian Klinger, MD, PhD,1 Manual Arias, PhD,2 Vassilis Vargemezis, MD,3 Anatole Besarab, MD,4 Wladyslaw Sulowicz, MD, PhD,5 Trevor Gerntholtz, FCP (SA),6
Kazimierz Ciechanowski, MD, PhD,7 Frank C. Dougherty, MD,8 and Ulrich Beyer, PhD,8 on behalf of the AMICUS Study Investigators

this paper states that:
"In summary, results of AMICUS showed that C.E.R.A. once every 2 weeks in patients with CKD on dialysis provided a high rate of response in conjunction with a smooth and steady increase in Hb levels while correcting anemia in accordance with current clinical guidelines. Our results show that C.E.R.A. once every 2 weeks is as effective and well tolerated as more frequent (3 times weekly) epoetin with predictable and controlled correction of anemia. These features have the potential to provide an advance in the management of anemia by minimizing renal unit workload during the correction of anemia."

I want to hear from users. Before dialysis my father was in mircera - in dialysis he was switched to eprex as dialysis technicians are comfortable with eprex and again we switched him to mircera after reading this article. Hope this is a +ve move.

Best regards,
Deependra

[dtandukar]

the technician here said that eprex is better for dialysis patient and mircera is more for those who are not in dialysis... is this what practiced? any idea??

[billybags]

That's got me flummoxed, I thought it was the other way around.

[GoingThere]

I'm on Mircera 75 and it works perfectly for me as pre - dialysis patient.

GT