Identification of patients and risk factors in chronic kidney disease--evaluating risk factors and therapeutic strategies

Abstract

Three strategies can help delay chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression: early identification of patients, modification of risk factors, and implementation of the best interventions. Early identification of patients requires accurate screening tools. As serum creatinine is an unreliable marker of kidney dysfunction, clinicians should focus on the glomerular filtration rate or other markers of true kidney function. Clinicians should also be aware of other indicators of abnormal kidney function, such as anaemia, acidosis, and increases in parathyroid hormone level. Additionally, both clinicians and patients should be aware of the "non-modifiable" and "modifiable" risk factors for CKD. Non-modifiable risk factors include age, gender, race, diabetes, and genetic make-up, while modifiable risk factors include elevated blood pressure and blood glucose, proteinuria, anaemia, metabolic disturbances, and dyslipidaemia. Patients should be particularly aware of the risk factors common to both cardiac and kidney disease, such as hypertension, proteinuria, anaemia, and (possibly) dyslipidaemia and diabetes. A single centre study demonstrated that inclusion in a multidisciplinary CKD clinic programme produced the greatest increases in time to renal replacement therapy, haemoglobin levels, and epoetin treatment usage at initiation of dialysis in comparison with standard nephrology care or no care. Two years after starting dialysis, the number of deaths was lowest, and the number of patients who had received a transplant or were still on dialysis was highest, in the CKD clinic-treated group. These results confirm those of previous studies, which showed that timely referral to a multidisciplinary team for management prior to dialysis decreases the risk of adverse patient outcomes. This suggests that a multidisciplinary, collaborative, proactive approach increases the likelihood of early identification of CKD patients and risk factor modification. However, further evidence-based demonstrations of success are required, showing benefit to both patients and health care systems.