Is high body mass index independently associated with diminished glomerular filtration rate? An epidemiological study.

AIM: To examine whether there is an independent association between body mass index (BMI) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) in a large primary care population. METHODS: Anonymous data were sequentially extracted from primary care records between 2006 and 2009 in a primary care population of approximately 220,000 people in Kent, South East UK. Using GFR, BMI, age, gender and comorbidities we examined the association between BMI and GFR. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed using SPSS(®) (SPSS Inc., Chicago). RESULTS: Sixty-one thousand six-hundred thirty seven people fulfilled the inclusion criteria. There was no correlation between BMI and GFR on univariate analysis. When stratified by BMI, ANOVA demonstrated a statistically significant difference in GFR across BMI strata (p < 0.001). However the absolute differences in BMI between groups were very small. There was a small association between BMI and GFR on multivariate analysis, much of which was lost on adjustment for confounding variables. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that elevated BMI is not a biologically significant predictor of diminished GFR and therefore may be an insufficiently accurate measure of risk for the metabolic syndrome and CKD.

Kidney disease management in UK primary care: guidelines, incentives and information technology.

The last few years have seen new developments to understand and tackle the significant public health issue posed by chronic kidney disease (CKD). Established renal disease currently consumes 2% of the UK National Health Service budget and predictions are that this figure will increase significantly due to the rising number of people requiring renal replacement therapy fuelled by the ageing population and the diabetes mellitus epidemic. This paper reviews the scale of CKD and discusses the new developments such as staging, referral guidelines and new Department of Health incentives brought about to improve awareness. The importance of Information Technology in assisting the management of renal disease is also outlined. We identify various types of intervention which might be used to do this: feedback in an educational context, the establishment of computerized decision support and enhancement of the patient journey. Many principles may be extended to the management of any chronic disease. While new developments are necessary to improve care, wider implementation is required to be able to see if improved outcomes are achieved.

The cost of implementing UK guidelines for the management of chronic kidney disease.

BACKGROUND: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major public health problem. In the UK, guidelines have been developed to facilitate case identification and management. Our aim was to estimate the annualized cost of implementation of the guidelines on newly identified CKD cases. METHODS: We interrogated the New Opportunities for Early Renal Intervention by Computerised Assessment (NEOERICA) database using a Java program created to recompile the CKD guidelines into rule-based decision trees. This categorized all patients with a serum creatinine recorded over a 1-year period into those requiring more tests or referral. A 12-month cost analysis for following the guidelines was performed. RESULTS: In the first year, a practice of 10,000 would identify 147.5 patients with stages 3-5 CKD over and above those already known. All stages 4-5 CKD cases would require nephrology referral. Of those with stage 3 CKD (143.85), 126.27 stable patients would require more tests. The following would require referral: 14.8 with estimated glomerular filtration rate decline>or=5 ml/min/1.73 m2/year, 1.11 with haemoglobin<11 g/dl and 1.67 with blood pressure>150/90 on three anti-hypertensives. The projected cost per practice of investigating stable stage 3 CKD was euro 6111; and euro 7836 for nephrology referral. Total costs of euro 17 133 in the first year were increased to euro 29,790 through the effect of creatinine calibration. CONCLUSIONS: CKD guideline implementation results in significant increases in nephrology referral and additional investigation. These costs could be recouped by delaying dialysis requirement by 1 year in one individual per 10,000 patients managed according to guidelines.