Regulation of plasma erythropoietin in chronic liver disease

To the Editor:In a May-issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology,thereis a very interesting study by Bruno et al.on erythropoietin(EPO) levels in patients with chronic liver diseas.We havevery recently reported a similar,but much larger study by Tackeet al.on the role of EPO in chronic fiver disease.By comparingBruno's results with our patient cohort and applying their criteriain a re-evaluation of our study population,we uncoveredinteresting differences between the two studies and could answersome of the key questions in the article raised by Bruno et al.,e.g.on the correlation of EPO with fiver dysfunction and potentialregulating factors in the clinical setting of liver cirrhosis.