IV Iron and Functional Outcomes in Kidney Transplant Recipients
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Iron deficiency is increasingly recognized as a clinically meaningful yet underexplored contributor to morbidity in kidney disease, extending beyond its traditional association with anemia. In populations such as kidney transplant recipients, where graft function may be stable, many patients continue to experience impaired physical function, reduced quality of life, and lingering fatigue.
As evidence from other fields, particularly cardiology, has begun to demonstrate the benefits of intravenous iron on functional outcomes independent of hemoglobin, questions are emerging about whether similar strategies could improve how patients with kidney disease feel and function, not just how they measure on laboratory parameters.
In this episode of Kidney Compass recorded on-site at World Congress of Nephrology in Yokohama, Japan, hosts Shikha Wadhwani, MD, MS, and Brendon Neuen, MBBS, PhD, spoke with Martin de Borst, MD, PhD, about his investigator-initiated randomized trial of intravenous iron in kidney transplant recipients.
0:00:00 – Episode intro & topic framing
0:01:11 – Rationale & observational signals
0:03:03 – Choice of primary endpoint (6‑minute walk)
0:04:35 – Trial design & blinding details
0:05:11 – Inclusion criteria & population profile
0:07:48 – Dosing regimen & primary outcome result
0:09:03 – Secondary outcomes & “fixed labs, not patients”
0:12:32 – Lessons learned & future trial directions