Are your kidneys okay? Detect early to protect kidney health
Early identification of kidney disease can protect kidney health, prevent kidney disease progression and related complications, reduce cardiovascular disease risk, and decrease mortality. We must ask "Are your kidneys ok?" using serum creatinine to estimate kidney function and urine albumin to assess for kidney and endothelial damage. Evaluation for causes and risk factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) includes testing for diabetes mellitus and measurement of blood pressure and body mass index. This World Kidney Day, we assert that case-finding in high-risk populations, or even population-level screening, can decrease the burden of kidney disease globally. Early-stage CKD is asymptomatic, simple to test for, and recent paradigm-shifting CKD treatments such as sodium glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors dramatically improve outcomes and favor the cost-benefit analysis for screening or case-finding programs. Despite this, numerous barriers exist, including resource allocation, healthcare funding, healthcare infrastructure, and healthcare-professional and population awareness of kidney disease. Coordinated efforts by major kidney non-governmental organizations to prioritize the kidney health agenda for governments and to align early detection efforts with other current programs will maximize efficiencies.
Authors
- Vassilios Liakopoulos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7564-2724)
- Joseph A. Vassalotti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8835-0192)
- Dina Abdellatif (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5398-3387)
- Agnès Haris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8562-7977)
- Latha Kumaraswami (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2462-4726)
- Ricardo Correa‐Rotter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0100-8285)
- Siu‐Fai Lui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0800-8982)
- Alessandro Balducci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7432-1494)
- Anna Francis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5106-3712)
- Augusto César Soares dos Santos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5864-2338)
- Stefanos K. Roumeliotis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9423-649X)
- Li‐Li Hsiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0830-3391)
Institutions
- Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
- National Kidney Foundation (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Cairo University (EG)
- Chinese University of Hong Kong (HK)
- AHEPA University Hospital (GR)
- Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán (MX)
- Mount Sinai Hospital (US)
- Péterfy Sándor Utcai Kórház-Rendelőintézet és Baleseti Központ (HU)
- Gujarat Kidney Foundation (IN)
- Hospital das Clínicas da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (BR)
- Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Kidney Research and Clinical Practice
- Published
- 2025-07-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.23876/j.krcp.25.106
- Primary Topic
- Birth, Development, and Health
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00