Guideline Target Rationales:

As a first step towards its mission statement to promote “coordination, collaboration, and integration of initiatives to develop and implement clinical practice guidelines”, KDIGO convened in April 2006 a meeting of the organizations who have developed the five guidelines currently listed and compared on the KDIGO webpage. At this meeting, it was decided to establish a Liaison Task Force composed of a representative from each organization to examine the variations in recommended targets and provide a brief justification for each of the apparent differences.

The Liaison Task Force is composed of: David Wheeler (RA-UK); Marin Gallagher (CARI-Australia); Michael Rocco/Adeera Levin (KDOQI-USA); Bruce Culleton (CSN-Canada); James Tattesall (EBPG-Europe); and Raymond Vanholder, chair.

The first five topics selected by the committee to launch this initiative are: target hemoglobin; Kt/V_urea for hemodialysis; Kt/V_urea for peritoneal dialysis; time of referral to a nephrologist; and preferred vascular access for hemodialysis. (each of these five can be made into a link to the tables comparing them) Over time, the Liaison Task Force will examine systematically all the tables comparing recommended targets and provide a justification for each on an ongoing basis as the guidelines are updated.

Raymond Vanholder
Chair, Liaison Task Force

The target rationales for the following topics are now available: