(Brussels, Belgium) – – – Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) is very pleased to announce another major publication in Kidney International. This is a report from the KDIGO Controversies Conference on Prognosis of Patients with Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease that was held in Barcelona, Spain in December 2016. Kai-Uwe Eckardt and Brenda Hemmelgarn led the conference, with globally recognized experts in attendance who contributed to the conclusions summarized in the report.

The Advanced CKD Conference looked at the characteristics of CKD G4+ patients with a focus on how to identify patients who are most at risk for further disease progression, and examined management and treatment strategies to slow such progression. It is well known that mortality and morbidity in this group of patients is high, and many do not survive to CKD G5 to receive kidney replacement therapy. Hence, observations to aid clinicians in preventing this premature death were the basis for discussions.

For the first time, KDIGO commissioned original research to support this Controversies Conference. The Chronic Kidney Disease-Prognosis Consortium, based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, conducted this research. Drs. Josef Coresh and Morgan Grams presented their data to the group in Barcelona, and their research findings resulted in two papers which are now published in the concurrent issues of Kidney International and Kidney International Reports.

“This landmark conference and the original research are a further reflection of KDIGO’s commitment to improving outcomes for our patients around the world. The Prognosis Consortium was a major collaborator with KDIGO on this and provided unprecedented insight into the health outcomes of patients at advanced stages of kidney disease, which until now have largely been unknown.”

Dr. David Wheeler, KDIGO Co-Chair, said, “This landmark conference and the original research are a further reflection of KDIGO’s commitment to improving outcomes for our patients around the world. The Prognosis Consortium was a major collaborator with KDIGO on this and provided unprecedented insight into the health outcomes of patients at advanced stages of kidney disease, which until now have largely been unknown.

“The Consortium studied a large data set of more than 264,500 patients from 29 cohorts, spanning 12 countries and 5 continents, to develop an analysis that helped inform the conference and guide clinicians to better tailor management approaches when treating patients with advanced kidney disease”, Dr. Wheeler added.

Among others, some of the major observations from the Conference Report include:

• Patients with advanced kidney disease have variable health outcomes depending on the individual’s health characteristics (for example: sex, age, ethnicity) and risk factors (for example: hypertension, diabetes, smoking)
• The Prognosis Consortium developed an online calculator, available here, that clinicians can use to provide individualized risk estimates for their patients
• Risk estimates are shown in the form of pie charts which can be used to inform patients in shared-decision making and by clinicians to personalize management strategies
• Established risk factors for cardiovascular complications such as diabetes and hypertension are highly relevant to progression in advanced kidney disease; one such common complication is heart failure and this conference report provides guidance on its management
• The use of online calculator could be utilized to facilitate decision making by patients to be better prepared for kidney replacement therapy
• This tool can also be used by researchers to design better trials to recruit patients at highest risk who may stand to benefit the most from novel interventions or treatments

In addition to KDIGO’s core business in developing and updating clinical practice guidelines, these Controversies Conferences and their resulting reports are highly useful and frequently cited additions to the body of knowledge on a wide range of kidney disease topics.

“The Consortium studied a large data set of more than 264,500 patients from 29 cohorts, spanning 12 countries and 5 continents, to develop an analysis that helped inform the conference and guide clinicians to better tailor management approaches when treating patients with advanced kidney disease.”

KDIGO is a Belgian foundation committed to developing and implementing nephrology guidelines that improve patient outcomes on a global basis.

For further information please contact KDIGO at [email protected].

# # #