EPO and chronic kidney disease: One of the main complications of advanced CKD that has an adverse impact on individual patient outcomes is represented by anemia, whose onset is mainly determined by a decreased production of endogenous erythropoietin (EPO) and impaired iron availability with functional deficiency [9]; as a consequence, the administration of exogenous iron and EPO treatment represent the mainstays for the management of this complication [10,11], despite not always prescribed to hospitalized patients [12].