Since a majority of our patients had chronic diseases, all of them had suffered an acute trauma or illness, and 80 % of them had an elevated CRP > 5, we decided, in line with the Leiden study [14], not to conduct any subgrouping of anemia patients with acute/chronic inflammation or chronic disease, but rather subdivide patients with explained and unexplained anemias based on simple, standardized laboratory measurements. This evidence concerns the gene CRP and anemia.