EPO and chronic kidney disease: Renal anemia in CKD is largely due to a deficiency in renal production of erythropoietin, usually being normocytic and normochromic, although its appearance has been also associated to iron deficiency [5], and several retrospective studies have reported a higher prevalence of anemia when inflammatory processes, malnutrition or diabetes are present in severe CKD [1,3,6,7].