Conditions: Anemia
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 170
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This study will assess the effect of anemia correction with NeoRecormon on cardiac structure and function in patients with early diabetic nephropathy. The anticipated time on study treatment is 1-2 years and the target sample size is 100-500 individuals.

Detailed description:

Arms:
arm 1: Along with their standard treatment participants will receive epoetin beta at a starting dose of 2000 International Units (IU) subcutaneously (SC) once weekly to reach and maintain target hemoglobin (Hb) between 13 and 15 grams per deciliter (g/dL), for 15 months. Epoetin beta doses will be adjusted according to individual participant's Hb level. Standard treatment will be as per investigator discretion. arm 2: Participants will receive their standard treatment for 15 months but no treatment for anemia correction unless Hb level will be less than (\<) 10.5 g/dL on 2 consecutive visits of 2 weeks interval or the Hb level will be \<10 g/dL on a single determination. In such cases participants could receive epoetin beta at a starting dose of 2000 IU SC once weekly to reach and maintain a target Hb level of 10.5 to 11.5 g/dL. Standard treatment will be as per investigator discretion.

Interventions: intervention 1: Epoetin beta
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: None

Protocol document: