A drug designed to fight anemia appears to double the risk of stroke in patients with diabetes and kidney disease without substantially improving their quality of life, a new study finds. Darbepoetin alfa, marketed as Aranesp and known as an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA), is often prescribed for diabetic patients with chronic kidney disease and mild anemia.

"The benefits we assumed we would have by treating anemia were less striking and the risks were more striking," said lead researcher Marc A. Pfeffer, MD, a professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. The results provide new data for doctors and patients to make their own risk-benefit assessment.   

This article originally appeared in the January 2010 issue of Kidney Beginnings: The Electronic Newsletter.