BMJ  2007;334:1287 (23 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.39247.723206.3A

Letters

Glomerular filtration rate

Reporting eGFR has benefits

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Giles and Fitzmaurice overlooked one of the main aims of the recent guidelines on chronic kidney disease and did not take into account the accepted definition of stages 1 and 2, or the recommendations on screening.^{1 2} Reducing late referral of people who are heading towards dialysis (and avoiding the associated poor outcome) was one of the intentions of the guidelines.²

The main reason for late referral is that glomerular filtration rate (GFR) can be very low when the serum creatinine is only modestly increased and the severity of the kidney disorder is underestimated. In spite of its shortcomings, eGFR reporting is the best method available to aid interpretation of serum creatinine. Since this was introduced in our unit (together with a programme of education in primary care), the proportion of new patients receiving dialysis who were referred late (defined as within 90 days) has fallen from 38% to 25% (P<0.01).

. . . [Full text of this article]

Renal Unit, Nottingham University Hospitals (City Hospital Campus), Nottingham NG5 1PB

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Formula estimation of glomerular filtration rate: have we gone wrong?

Paul D Giles and David A Fitzmaurice
BMJ 2007 334: 1198-1200. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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