Costs and benefits of improving renal failure treatment—where do we go?

The nephrology interdisciplinary team: an education synergism

Patients with kidney disease often have a poor understanding of their condition. The interdisciplinary team can effectively educate these patients to slow disease progression and enhance self-management. The kidney community needs large, well-designed studies to determine the best way to educate patients and hopefully stem the tide of a rapidly increasing population of kidney patients. Congress authorized payment to eligible providers for kidney disease education for Medicare beneficiaries. However, this benefit is not being optimally used. In addition, reimbursement denials were 14-17% in 2011 and 20-23% in 2012. This is more than 4 times the usual Medicare denial rate for current procedural terminology (CPT) codes.

Attitudes and behaviors of African Americans regarding early detection of kidney disease

BACKGROUND

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an African American public health crisis. To inform interventions, the National Kidney Disease Education Program surveyed African Americans about their attitudes and behaviors regarding early detection of kidney disease and screening.

STUDY DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS

2,017 African Americans from 7 states (Georgia, Maryland, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, and Tennessee) selected by using a random-digit dialing telephone survey (response rate, 42.4%).

PREDICTORS

Demographic, risk, knowledge, and behavior variables.

OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS

Perception of CKD as a top health concern, perceived risk of getting kidney disease, and accurate knowledge about CKD and its prevention.

RESULTS

Only 23.5% of African Americans were screened for kidney disease in the last year. Although almost half (43.7%) of African Americans had a CKD risk factor, only 2.8% reported that CKD was a top health concern. Almost half knew the correct definition of kidney disease (48.6%), but few knew a test to diagnose CKD (23.7%) or that African Americans were at greater risk of developing CKD (18.1%). African Americans who had diabetes (odds ratio [OR], 3.22; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.17 to 4.76), hypertension (OR, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.28 to 2.44), at least a bachelor's degree (OR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.17 to 2.66), who had spoken with a medical professional (OR, 1.85; 95% CI, 1.19 to 2.85) or their family (OR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.11 to 2.38) about kidney disease, who knew that a family history of kidney disease is a risk factor (OR, 2.32; 95% CI, 1.08 to 5.0), and who had been tested for CKD in the last year (OR, 1.45; 95% CI, 1.03 to 2.0) were more likely to correctly perceive themselves at increased risk.

LIMITATIONS

Respondents were primarily African American women from urban areas.

CONCLUSIONS

Most African Americans have poor knowledge about CKD, do not perceive it as an important health problem, and are not getting screened. To increase early detection of kidney disease through screenings, educational efforts linking kidney disease prevention to other diseases that are health priorities for African Americans are necessary.

[The past and present of peritoneal dialysis]

The author reviews briefly the history of peritoneal dialysis, and highlights the significance of the work of two Hungarian nephrologists, Stephen I. Vas and István Taraba . By now, peritoneal dialysis has been considered as equal renal replacement modality compared to haemodialysis. It is even more advantageous in the protection of the patients' residual renal function, morbidity-mortality indices, and quality of life peritoneal dialysis in the first two years. From economical point of view peritoneal dialysis is less expensive than hemodialysis, therefore in the future its greater role can be expected in the treatment of more and more renal patients. The recently achieved technical development, and also the more widespread use of the automated peritoneal dialysis machines contribute to quality improvement. The peritoneal dialysis therapy, by the patients' self-treatment, establishes a new kind of relationship between the patients and the medical personnel; there is a growing requirement for patient education, the patients' self-esteem and cooperation increase, which altogether provides better results in rehabilitation and higher quality of life. Our national peritoneal dialysis utilization falls behind the European achievements, but has been growing dynamically, and we can expect an increase of the number of renal patients on peritoneal dialysis.

Prevalence of decreased glomerular filtration rate in patients seeking non-nephrological medical care — An evaluation using IDMS-traceable creatinine based MDRD as well as Mayo Clinic quadratic equation estimates

BACKGROUND

Data on the prevalence of decreased glomerular filtration rate in Europe are limited. Most of the available studies did not employ laboratory methods providing creatinine concentrations traceable to the reference method, i.e. isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS).

METHODS

We therefore conducted a cross-sectional study in the principality of Liechtenstein consecutively enrolling adult patients seeking non-nephrological medical care from whom serum samples were referred for renal function assessment. All measurements were done in one central laboratory. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated based on the determination of IDMS-traceable creatinine by a kinetic Jaffe method (Roche Diagnostics, Switzerland) by means of the MDRD and Mayo Clinic quadratic equations. We further estimated the incidence of end stage renal disease during the next 5 years.

RESULTS

For 43% (n=9378) of the entire population>or=25 years renal function assessment was available. An eGFR indicating chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 3-5 was found in 4.93% when using the MDRD equation and in 3.98 % when using the Mayo Clinic quadratic equation. The two equations had a very good agreement in classifying patients to have an eGFR consistent with CKD stages 3-5 (Cohen's kappa 0.887). Further calculations suggested that among patients aged 80 or younger, annually 42 per 100,000 are going to develop an eGFR<15 ml/min/1.73 m2 over the next 5 years.

CONCLUSIONS

4-5% of patients seeking non-nephrological medical advice have an eGFR consistent with CKD stages 3-5, and a considerable number of subjects is expected to develop end stage renal disease over a 5 year period. In order to obtain comparable kidney function estimates among different institutions it is not only important to use standardized methods to measure creatinine but rather to employ standardized methods to calculate a GFR estimate.