KDIGO Publications

Survey on the Definition and Classification of CKD

KDIGO – CKD Evaluation and Classification Work Group

K.-U. Eckardt, R. Walker (co-chairs)
R. Burgos-Calderon, G. Eknoyan, A. Levin, J. Rossert, Y. Tsukamoto

There is uniform agreement among members of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of KDIGO that a common and simple definition and classification of kidney disease is necessary in order to achieve the goals of KDIGO at an international level.

As a preparatory step for a consensus conference on this topic, which was held in Amsterdam in November 2004, a survey was developed and disseminated by electronic mail to 10, 000 nephrologists worldwide to assess their current practice and opinions regarding the definition and classification of CKD and to learn about their experiences in using the definition and classification system developed by KDOQI in 2002.

The survey was designed to answer the following questions:

• What is the current practice (eGFR, measurement of proteinuria, definition of CKD, use of a classification system) of nephrologists?
• Is there agreement on the use of eGFR as a basis of different stages of CKD ?
• Is there agreement on the use of spot urine samples ?
• What is the current knowledge on parameters required for eGFR ?
• What are potential barriers and concerns regarding implementation ?

The survey was web-based and was offered in five different languages (English, French, Spanish, Japanese, German). Several National and International Societies, including the ISN, the ERA-EDTA, the Spanish, the Latin-American and the French Society of Nephrology kindly supported this initiative by providing e-mail addresses of their members.

The results of this survey and many comments provided by the respondents were extremely valuable to the participants of the consensus conference and greatly helped to identify issues and areas of agreement, concern and uncertainty. On the other hand we have reasons to believe that, partly due to the consensus reached at the conference, in certain countries (e.g. in Japan) the attitude and opinion of physicians has changed already since the responses to the questionnaire were submitted.

Please Click Here to see the English version of the questionnaire and a power-point presentation which summarizes the responses to all questions.

The work group members express their sincere thanks to those colleagues in all parts of the world who took their time to support the KDIGO process by replying to the questionnaire.

For questions and comments please contact Info@kdigo.org