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Anaemia

The increasing burden of mild and moderate anaemia in CKD

Anaemia is a frequent complication of chronic kidney disease (CKD) that is associated with reduced quality of life and adverse clinical outcomes. A new analysis suggests that the global burden of anaemia in CKD will rise substantially in the next 25 years.

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Fig. 1: Prevalence and years lived with disability (YLDs) of anaemia in chronic kidney disease in 1990 and 2019.

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Acknowledgements

The authors’ work was supported by MEXT/JSPS grant-in-aids 24K11425 (to H.N.) and 23K27615 (to M.N.), and AMED grant 22zf0127006h0001 (to M.N.). The funders had no role in manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to Masaomi Nangaku.

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H.N. reports receiving honoraria from Astellas, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly, Kowa, Kyowa Kirin, Mitsubishi Tanabe, MSD, Ono, Otsuka and Torii; and research grants from Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Kyowa Kirin, Mitsubishi Tanabe and Novo Nordisk. M.N. reports receiving honoraria and/or advisory fees from Astellas, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Chugai, Daiichi Sankyo, GSK, JT, Kyowa Kirin, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Novo Nordisk and Torii; and research grants from Astellas, Bayer, Chugai, Daiichi Sankyo, JT, Kyowa Kirin, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Ono, Takeda and Torii.

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Nishi, H., Nangaku, M. The increasing burden of mild and moderate anaemia in CKD. Nat Rev Nephrol 21, 651–652 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41581-025-00994-7

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