Rationale, design, and characteristics of a trial to evaluate the new phosphate iron-based binder sucroferric oxyhydroxide in dialysis patients with the goal of advancing the practice of E.B.M. (EPISODE)

Background In dialysispatients, mortality risk due to cardiovascular diseases is remarkably high and prognosis is poor; coronary artery calcificationis considered one of the major contributing factors. It is known that hyperphosphatemiais associated with coronary artery calcification. Therefore, controlling serum phosphatelevel and thereby mitigating vascular calcificationcould improve the poor prognosis of dialysispatients. However, the optimal phosphatelevel in dialysispatients remains unknown; hence, this study was planned to compare the effects of two types of non-calcium-based phosphate binders, and examine the effect of strict control of phosphateon coronary artery calcification.