Analysis links blood volumizer with kidney damage, deaths.

Bloomberg News (2/20, Kresge) reports that hydroxyethyl starch, which is manufactured by Bad Homburg, Germany-based Fresenius SE to "boost blood volume in critically ill patients increases the risk of death and kidney damage," according to a data analysis published the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers analyzed 38 previous trials "that compared hydroxyethyl starch with other intravenous fluids in 10,868 patients," running the data "twice, once to include seven studies by German researcher Joachim Boldt and once without Boldt's work," most of which was "retracted due to research misconduct" in 2011. Initially, the study team found that the patients who received hydroxyethyl starch solution infusions were no "less likely to die than those treated with other blood volume boosters," but after excluding Boldt's seven studies, they discovered hydroxyethyl starch was "associated with a bigger risk of death and kidney injury."