Foreword
1Renal Services, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde, UK and 2University of Leicester School of Medicine, UK
In 2006, for the first time, UK primary care physicians received financial incentives for recognizing patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). At the same time routine reporting of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) based on serum creatinine, age, sex and race became mandatory for laboratories. The rationale for these innovations was to identify patients with early (stages 1–3) CKD in the community so that their increased cardiovascular risk could be addressed and the progression of renal failure prevented, whilst those with deteriorating renal function or more advanced CKD could receive timely referral to specialist care.
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE), the Renal Association and the Scottish Renal Association convened this Consensus Conference to review important aspects of early CKD and to consider whether current national and international guidelines were appropriate for routine clinical practice. This is one of a series of conferences organized by the Education Department of the RCPE. The organizing committee set predefined questions to be addressed and commissioned expert authors to write peer-reviewed background papers: they appointed a multidisciplinary Consensus Panel, including specialist and lay members, and invited key speakers to discuss and debate these issues with an informed audience over two days.
The Consensus Panel presented two drafts to the meeting for discussion before producing a final Consensus Statement at the end of the conference. Crucial recommendations were that CKD staging should include the presence or absence of significant proteinuria and that CKD 3 should be sub classified to 3A (eGFR 45–59 ml/min) and 3B (30–44 ml/min). However, the Statement also describes how to improve the accuracy of eGFR measurements, the organization of care and the clinical management of CKD.
This Supplement of NDT contains the Consensus Statement, the background papers written for the meeting, the speaker summaries and poster abstracts. The success of this conference resulted from these contributions, two days of vigorous discussion and the efforts of the expert and hard-working Consensus Panel.
Conflict of interest statement. None declared.
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