Published online May 15, 2017. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v8.i5.222
Peer-review started: November 2, 2016
First decision: December 1, 2016
Revised: December 20, 2016
Accepted: February 28, 2017
Article in press: March 2, 2017
Published online: May 15, 2017
Processing time: 198 Days and 5.8 Hours
To evaluate the influence of creatinine methodology on the performance of chronic kidney disease (CKD)-Epidemiology Collaboration Group-calculated estimated glomerular filtration rate (CKD-EPI-eGFR) for CKD diagnosis/staging in a large cohort of diabetic patients.
Fasting blood samples were taken from diabetic patients attending our clinic for their regular annual examination, including laboratory measurement of serum creatinine and eGFR.
Our results indicated an overall excellent agreement in CKD staging (kappa = 0.918) between the Jaffé serum creatinine- and enzymatic serum creatinine-based CKD-EPI-eGFR, with 9% of discordant cases. As compared to the enzymatic creatinine, the majority of discordances (8%) were positive, i.e., associated with the more advanced CKD stage re-classification, whereas only 1% of cases were negatively discordant if Jaffé creatinine was used for eGFR calculation. A minor proportion of the discordant cases (3.5%) were re-classified into clinically relevant CKD stage indicating mildly to moderately decreased kidney function (< 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2). Significant acute and chronic hyperglycaemia, assessed as plasma glucose and HbA1c levels far above the recommended glycaemic goals, was associated with positively discordant cases. Due to a very low frequency, positive discordance is not likely to present a great burden for the health-care providers, while intensified medical care may actually be beneficial for the small number of discordant patients. On the other hand, a very low proportion of negatively discordant cases (1%) at the 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2 eGFR level indicate a negligible possibility to miss the CKD diagnosis, which could be the most prominent clinical problem affecting patient care, considering high risk of CKD for adverse patient outcomes.
This study indicate that compensated Jaffé creatinine procedure, in spite of the glucose-dependent bias, is not inferior to enzymatic creatinine in CKD diagnosis/staging and therefore may provide a reliable and cost-effective tool for the renal function assessment in diabetic patients.
Core tip: Analytical performance of the serum creatinine assays is the critical determinant of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) accuracy. The most widely used compensated Jaffé creatinine assay suffers from a non-specific bias from pseudo-creatinine chromogens (glucose, ketones), which is not the case with the costly enzymatic assays. We evaluated the influence of creatinine methodology on the performance of chronic kidney disease (CKD)-Epidemiology-calculated eGFR for CKD diagnosis/staging in diabetic patients. Our results indicate that compensated Jaffé creatinine procedure, in spite of the glucose-dependent bias, is not inferior to enzymatic creatinine in CKD diagnosis/staging and therefore may provide a reliable and cost-effective tool for the renal function assessment in diabetic patients.