KDIGO News
KDIGO RELEASES FIRST GLOBAL KIDNEY DISEASE GUIDELINE: HEPATITIS C in Chronic Kidney Disease
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – (April 2, 2008) — The first global clinical practice guidelines for the care of kidney disease patients were published today as a supplement to the latest issue of Kidney International. The guidelines were developed by Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) and are also available online at www.kdigo.org.
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) affects an estimated 170 million individuals worldwide and is more prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) than in the general population. KDIGO’s Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention, Diagnosis, Evaluation and Treatment of Hepatitis C in Chronic Kidney Disease will be globally applicable in numerous care settings, particularly nephrology and transplant practices.
The guidelines address virus detection as well as transmission prevention. They strongly recommend testing for HCV in patients on maintenance hemodialysis and in kidney transplant candidates. They recommend that all kidney donors should be tested for HCV. The guidelines also state that infection-control procedures should include hygienic precautions that effectively prevent the transfer of contaminated blood or fluids.
“The KDIGO hepatitis C guidelines will undoubtedly improve prevention strategies and ultimately reduce hepatitis C transmission in hemodialysis units. A cornerstone of the guidelines is basic hygienic precautions related to hepatitis C in dialysis which is especially important for many developing countries,” says work group Co-Chair Michel Jadoul, MD, of Brussels, Belgium.
“The guidelines will help physicians identify patients infected by hepatitis C who do not know they have CKD and help patients with CKD who do not know they have hepatitis C. This will make it possible to improve the management of the condition with optimal antiviral regimens,” continues Jadoul.
Dr. Jadoul and David Roth, MD, of Miami, Florida, USA, led an international, multi-disciplinary team, consisting of 14 experts from the field of nephrology, virology, hepatology, transplantation and infectious diseases on the development of evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines. Key issues addressed in the guideline include:
- Detection and Evaluation of HCV in CKD
- Treatment of HCV Infection in Patients with CKD
- Preventing HCV Transmission in Hemodialysis Units
- Management of HCV-Infected Patients before and after Kidney Transplantation
- Diagnosis and Management of Kidney Diseases Associated with HCV Infection
“The guidelines mark a milestone not only for KDIGO, but for the development of clinical practice guidelines that improve outcomes for patients with chronic kidney disease. It will be the first guideline on Hepatitis C in CKD, and the first global guideline in nephrology,” said Dr. Garabed Eknoyan of Houston, Texas who co-chairs KDIGO with Dr. Kai-Uwe Eckardt of Erlangen, Germany.
KDIGO Guideline Development Process
KDIGO employs an evidence based approach that is modeled on the guideline development process used in the NKF-Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative (KDOQI™) guidelines. It empowers an independent work group and three methodology centers from different parts of the world to rigorously examine the published evidence and formulate practice guidelines. Before they are finalized, the draft guidelines undergo a three-tier review process: internal review by the KDIGO Board, organizational review by key patient groups, medical societies and government agencies and open peer review. Reviewer comments are carefully reviewed by the work group, and incorporated as appropriate, before the guidelines are finalized and published in Kidney International.
KDIGO, a global non-profit foundation managed by the National Kidney Foundation, is dedicated to improving the care and outcomes of kidney disease patients worldwide through promoting coordination, collaboration, and integration of initiatives to develop and implement clinical practices guidelines.
For additional information on KDIGO, please visit www.kdigo.org
