Patterns of care for patients with chronic kidney disease in the United States: dying for improvement.

The burden of chronic kidney disease can be assessed by multiple criteria that underscore the need for improved detection, treatment, and outcome monitoring. Several process measures for the care of advanced CKD patients are examined herein. Twenty seven and 11% of patients with CKD in National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) III had BP <140/90 and 130/85, respectively. In addition to inadequate prescription of antihypertensive drugs, another confounder is poor diagnostic recognition of CKD. Recent surveys of incident Medicare-eligible ESRD patients observed severe anemia in a preponderance of patients; mean and median hematocrit values were 27.7% +/- 5.9 and 27.8%, respectively. Only 23 to 28% of these patients were prescribed epoetin alfa. Clinical practice guidelines recommend that <10% of maintenance hemodialysis patients should be chronically dialyzed using percutaneous catheters. A recent national survey of vascular access types among incident American hemodialysis patients found that 30%, 41%, and 29% were dialyzing through a catheter, prosthetic graft, and autologous fistula, respectively. Tunneled catheters are associated with a 39% annual increased risk of death. Based on pharmacokinetic assumptions about the minimum amount of solute clearance by hemodialysis needed for patient survival in ESRD, a GFR of 10.5 ml/min per 1.73 m(2) is needed. The mean GFR of incident ESRD patients in the United States was 9.5 ml/min per 1.73 m(2) in 2000. In addition to the wide international variability in modality treatment selection, geographic variability exists within the United States; <7 to >15% of the prevalent patients are treated by peritoneal dialysis across the country. Despite survival and quality-of-life benefits with transplantation, most eligible recipients in the United States have not been placed on a transplant waiting list 6 mo after beginning dialysis. Last, <40% of incident ESRD patients in the United States have received the recommended frequency of mammography, PAP examinations, or prostate-specific antigen (PSA) or HbA1c measurements. These deficiencies in care for patients with advanced CKD likely adversely influence the survival of US ESRD patients. Contemporary outcome information supports this contention. CKD patients referred to a nephrologist for the first time within 90 d of the start of dialysis have an approximately 40% to 60% increased risk of death during their first year of renal replacement therapy (RRT). Thirty-five percent of CKD patients are seen within 90 d of receiving RRT. In addition, if fewer than five nephrology visits occur, death risks are increased by 15%. These findings confirm the urgent need for improvement in healthcare delivery for CKD patient in the United States.