Gastrointestinal Blood Loss in Patients With Chronic Renal Failure

In the management of patients with chronic failure one of the persistent medical problems is that of anemia. Since iron deficiency can be an important component of this anemia, this study was designed to evaluate the possible contribution of gastrointestinal blood loss to their anemia. Blood loss was quantitated by 51 chromium labeling red cells in normals and in patients with chronic renal failure both before and during chronic hemodialysis. Four normal volunteers had a gastrointestinal blood loss of 0.83 ml/day, six azotemic patients not yet on hemodialysis had significantly greater gastrointestinal blood loss of 3.15 ml/day ( p p p