A simple model can identify those at risk of chronic kidney disease

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Researchers develop tool to screen at-risk population for chronic kidney disease.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a serious medical condition which is under-diagnosed among the population. It is easy enough to test kidney function, but those at risk need to be identified first. A team at Weill Cornell Medical College and the University of North Carolina has now developed a simple tool which can achieve this.

They looked at demographic, clinical and medical factors which influence the risk of CKD. This revealed seven risk factors - age, female gender, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, protein in the urine and anemia. These frequently occur together and are easy to identify. Therefore, the researchers compiled a questionnaire covering these factors as the basis of their tool. Patients getting a score of four or more on this questionnaire should have a test for blood creatinine, which measures kidney function. In this study, 36 per cent of the 8,530 participants fell into this group.

Current screening for CKD focuses upon single risk factors. The value of this new approach is that it takes the cumulative effect of multiple risk factors into account. The hope is that it will identify people with CKD at an earlier stage when treatment is more likely to be effective.

Source
Archives of Internal Medicine 26th February 2007