PromarkerD Versus Standard of Care Biochemical Measures for Assessing Future Renal Function Decline in Type 2 Diabetes

<b>Background/Objectives:</b> The current standard of care for assessing chronic kidney disease complicating diabetes (DKD) includes measurement of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urinary albumin:creatinine ratio (uACR) but both tests have limitations. The present study compared the biomarker-based Promarker^®D test with conventional biochemical measures for predicting future kidney function decline in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D). <b>Methods:</b> Baseline concentrations of apolipoprotein A-IV, CD5 antigen-like protein and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 were combined with age, serum HDL cholesterol and eGFR to generate PromarkerD risk scores for incident DKD/eGFR decline ≥ 30% (the primary endpoint) in 857 adults with T2D (mean age 65.4 years, 54% males). Logistic regression modelling was used to compare the association of (i) PromarkerD, (ii) eGFR, (iii) uACR, and (iv) eGFR plus uACR with this outcome during 4 years of follow-up. <b>Results:</b> Study participants were classified by PromarkerD as low (63%), moderate (13%), or high risk (24%) for kidney function decline at baseline. Over a mean 4.2 years, 12.5% developed the primary endpoint. PromarkerD scores showed significantly higher predictive performance (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) 0.88 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85-0.91)) compared to conventional biochemical measures (AUC = 0.63-0.82). There was a progressive increase in risk with moderate and high risk by PromarkerD exhibiting greater odds of the primary endpoint compared to those at low risk (odds ratios (OR) (95% CI) 8.11 (3.99-16.94) and 21.34 (12.03-40.54), respectively, both <i>p</i> < 0.001). <b>Conclusions:</b> PromarkerD more accurately identifies adults with T2D at risk of kidney function decline than current usual care biochemical tests.