Anemia is a common finding among patients with chronic heart failure. Although co-morbidities, such as kidney failure, might contribute to the pathogenesis of anemia, many patients with heart failure do not have any other obvious etiology for their anemia. We investigated whether anemia in heart failure is associated with an elevation in hepcidin concentration.

We used time-of-flight mass spectrometry to measure hepcidin concentration in urine and serum samples of patients with heart failure and in control subjects. We found that the concentration of hepcidin was lower in urine samples of patients with heart failure compared to those of control subjects. Serum hepcidin was also reduced in heart failure but was not significantly lower than that in controls. There were no significant differences between hepcidin levels in patients with heart failure and anemia compared to patients with heart failure and normal hemoglobin. We concluded that hepcidin probably does not play a major role in pathogenesis of anemia in patients with chronic heart failure.