Photo Credit: Mohammed Haneefa Nizamudeen
The following is a summary of “Identifying individuals at risk of needing CKD associated medications in a European kidney disease cohort,” published in the February 2024 issue of Nephrology by Stamellou et al.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study to analyze patient data and predict future medication needs for chronic kidney disease (CKD), potentially optimizing follow-up care.
They assigned participants to two derivations and one validation group. Logistic regression was used to identify variables that predicted the future use of vitamin D receptor agonists (VDRA), phosphate binders, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs), and iron. Demographic, comorbidity, hospitalization, laboratory, and mortality data were included from patients with CKD stage G4/G5 across six European countries. C-statistics assessed discriminative ability and predicted medication use probability determined follow-up frequency.
The results showed that among 2,196 patients, throughout a median tracking period of 735 days, 648 patients commenced hemodialysis, while 1,548 did not. Combinations of age, diabetes status, iPTH, calcium, hemoglobin, and serum albumin levels foretold the utilization of ESA, iron, phosphate binder, or VDRA, with C-statistics of 0.70, 0.64, 0.73, and 0.63 in the derivation cohorts respectively. The model’s performance in validation cohorts demonstrated similarity. About sixteen percent of patients were expected to have a chance of receiving any of these medications, which was less than 20%.
Investigators concluded that patient characteristics predicted ESA/phosphate binder use in CKD, potentially reducing follow-up for low-risk patients.
Source: bmcnephrol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12882-024-03497-y