Prognostic factors for a composite end-point of renal outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease

Therapeutic advantage of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors in patients with proteinuric chronic kidney disease

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) is recommended for the treatment of hypertension in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The relation of ACEI to renal prognosis was investigated in CKD patients in a retrospective cohort study. The objectives were patients with nondiabetic CKD of stage 4 or below receiving monotherapy with calcium channel blocker (CCB), ACEI, or ARB, and combination therapy. For the endpoint of progression to CKD stage 5, Cox's proportional hazards analysis was conducted with explanatory variables of age, sex, baseline estimated GFR (eGFR), and proteinuria (UP) at the start of the observation period, and final blood pressure (BP) and UP at completion of the observation period. Analyzed patients comprised 131 males and 117 females, with mean age of 47.8 years. Patients were observed for 44.2 months, and the parameters of final SBP, DBP, eGFR, and UP were 127.6 +/- 6.9 mmHg, 77.8 +/- 5.8 mmHg, 38.1 +/- 10.6 ml/min/1.73 m(2), and 1.08 +/- 0.57 g/gCr, respectively, where 42 patients progressed to CKD stage 5. Drugs of CCB, ACEI, and ARB types were administered to 93, 85, and 127 patients, respectively. In the multivariate analysis, extracted common prognostic factors included the baseline eGFR and final UP, the odds ratio of which was 0.876 (every increase by 1 ml/min of eGFR) and 2.229 (every increase by 1 g of UP), respectively. Among drugs in use, ACEI was an independent prognostic factor, whose odds ratio was 0.147. The present study suggests that ACEI is a prognostic factor independent of hypotensive action and UP in CKD patients.

Risk factors for progression in patients with early-stage chronic kidney disease in the Japanese population

OBJECTIVE

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important worldwide health problem. The incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is increasing steadily around the world, however few studies have discussed the risk factors for progression in patients with early-stage CKD. Therefore, we designed a retrospective cohort study of patients with early-stage CKD to identify the risk factors influencing the annualized slope of the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR).

METHODS AND PATIENTS

In this longitudinal cohort study, baseline examination was conducted in 2012 outpatients treated at the Kidney Center, Tokyo Women's Medical University. Follow-up examinations were completed in 485 patients with stage 1 and stage 2 CKD within the study period (2002-2007). The conventional risk factors for CKD progression, such as proteinuria, blood pressure, serum triglyceride, serum HDL, fasting plasma glucose, smoking habit, hypertension or treatment with antihypertensive medication and body mass index, were examined. The annualized eGFR slope was calculated at the start and end of the study period. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine the associations of the eGFR slope with the predisposing risk factors.

RESULTS

The mean annualized eGFR slope was -1.64 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year. Concerning the relationship between etiology and the GFR decreasing slope, IgA nephropathy was defined as the worst (-1.80 mL/min/year) due to the high ratio of proteinuria. Proteinuria (-2.13 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year, p=0.005), smoking habit (-2.06 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year, p=0.014), low serum HDL (-1.95 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year, p=0.035), and hypertension (-1.73 mL/min/1.73 m(2)/year, p=0.045) were all significantly related to the eGFR slope. The estimated GFR for the highest BMI quartile was significantly higher than that of the eGFR for the lowest BMI.

CONCLUSION

Proteinuria, smoking habit, hypertension and low HDL were clearly related to accelerated disease progression in patients with early-stage CKD. Therefore, aggressive treatment of these risk factors is essential in the early stages of CKD.