American Kidney Fund Applauds New KDIGO 2024 Chronic Kidney Disease Guideline

ROCKVILLE, Md. (March 14, 2024) — LaVarne A. Burton, President and CEO of the American Kidney Fund (AKF), issued the following statement about the KDIGO 2024 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Management of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD): 

"The American Kidney Fund strongly supports and welcomes the updated clinical practice guideline for CKD published by KDIGO this week. Much has changed since the 2012 guideline, particularly with advancements in treatment to slow the progression of CKD. 

"In addition to the added emphasis on patient-centered care, AKF is particularly pleased to see the guidelines call for clinicians to actively seek out the cause of a patient's CKD and pursue diagnostic tests to establish cause, in addition to guidance on diagnosis and treatment. AKF has been leading efforts to improve understanding of how undiagnosed or misdiagnosed causes of kidney disease directly impact patient care and outcomes since the launch of its Unknown Causes of Kidney Disease Project in 2020. The updated guideline reinforces the importance of these efforts, and we hope widespread adoption by health care providers will in turn help people with kidney disease get the answers they need.  

"In addition to urinalysis, estimated glomerular filtration rate, urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio and other tests, KDIGO supports the use of genetic testing to determine the cause of CKD. Between 5 and 15% of kidney disease patients don't know the cause of their kidney disease. 

"Genetic testing for kidney disease has a number of benefits in addition to identifying the cause of the disease, including helping to predict its progression, informing tailored treatment interventions, educating family members who may also be at risk and potentially providing opportunities to enroll in clinical trials. There are some kidney diseases that can only be detected through genetic testing. 

"On this World Kidney Day, AKF applauds these long-awaited clinical guideline updates, which could make a lasting impact in the lives of millions affected by kidney disease."