Undiagnosed CKD Highly Prevalent in Hypertension, Cardiovascular Disease – Renal and Urology News

PHILADELPHIA—Undiagnosed early chronic kidney disease (CKD) is highly prevalent among patients with hypertension and cardiovascular disease in the absence of type 2 diabetes (T2D), investigators reported at the American Society of Nephrology’s Kidney Week 2023.

Investigators noted that early diagnosis of CKD and active management can slow disease progression and improve outcomes, but the prevalence of undiagnosed early-stage CKD in patients with comorbidities other than T2D has not been reported.

Using the US TriNetX database, Navdeep Tangri, MD, of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, and colleagues studied patients aged 18 years or older with 2 consecutive estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR, in mL/min/1.73 m²) measurements of 30 or higher but less than 60 (stage 3 CKD) recorded 91-730 days apart from 2015 to 2020. They defined undiagnosed CKD as the absence of a CKD diagnosis code any time before and up to 6 months after the second eGFR measurement (index date). The analysis included 4 cohorts based on ICD diagnosis codes: patients with hypertension but not T2D; patients with hypertension or atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) but not T2D; patients with hypertension or heart failure but not T2D; and patients with T2D.

In the absence of T2D, the proportion of patients with undiagnosed stage 3 CKD was 68.4% in patients with hypertension, 68.7% in patients with either hypertension or ASCVD, and 68.6% among patients with hypertension or heart failure. All of these proportions were greater than for patients with T2D (51.7%).

“These results highlight an opportunity to increase early identification of CKD in people with high-risk comorbidities other than T2D in order to implement targeted evidence-based therapies to slow progression of CKD and improve patient outcomes,” the authors concluded.

Disclosure: This research was supported by AstraZeneca. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures.

Reference

Tangri N, Kushner PR, Barone S, Arnold M, Chen H, Alvarez CS. Undiagnosed early CKD in patients with hypertension and cardiovascular disease in the United States. Presented at Kidney Week 2023; November 2-5, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Poster TH-PO1004.