Baseline Characteristics in the Trial to Reduce Cardiovascular Events With Aranesp Therapy (TREAT)
Received 25 February 2009; accepted 10 April 2009. published online 08 June 2009.
Background
Anemia augments the already high rates of fatal and major nonfatal cardiovascular and renal events in individuals with type 2 diabetes. In 2004, we initiated the Trial to Reduce Cardiovascular Events With Aranesp Therapy (TREAT). This report presents the baseline characteristics and therapies of TREAT participants and subgroups defined by the presence or absence of overt proteinuria and history of cardiovascular disease. The design of TREAT and baseline characteristics also are compared with 2 recent trials of nondialysis patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in which treatment with another erythropoiesis-stimulating agent targeting greater hemoglobin levels had either a neutral or adverse effect on clinical outcomes.
Study Design
Randomized trial.
Setting & Participants
4,044 participants with type 2 diabetes, CKD (defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate of 20 to 60 mL/min/1.73 m2), and anemia (hemoglobin ≤ 11 g/dL) from 24 countries.
Intervention
Darbepoetin alfa to attempt to increase hemoglobin levels to 13 g/dL compared with placebo.
Outcomes
TREAT is an event-driven design to continue until approximately 1,203 patients experience a primary event: the composite end point of death or cardiovascular morbidity (nonfatal myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, stroke, or hospitalization for myocardial ischemia). The composite end point of death or need for long-term renal replacement therapy also is a primary end point.
Conclusions
With several-fold more patient-years and a placebo arm, TREAT will provide a robust estimate of the safety and efficacy of darbepoetin alfa and generate prospective data regarding the risks of major cardiovascular and renal events in a contemporarily managed cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes, CKD, and anemia.
Because an author of this manuscript is an editor for AJKD, the peer-review and decision-making processes were handled entirely by an Associate Editor (Peter McCullough, MD, MPH, William Beaumont Hospital) who served as Acting Editor-in-Chief. Details of the journal's procedures for potential editor conflicts are given in the Editorial Policies section of the AJKD website.
A list of the TREAT Investigators is provided as online supplementary material for this article.
ABSTRACT