Kidney Matters - Issue 16 Spring 2022

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Transforming the treatment of CKD
New NICE guidelines introduce important changes designed to improve diagnosis and
treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD).
All guidelines from NICE (the National Institute of
Health and Care Excellence) are important because
they directly determine the care we receive from
the NHS and influence plans for health services.
The highlights of new CKD guidance include removal
of ethnicity from eGFR calculation, a new way of
estimating the risk of needing dialysis or a kidney
transplant, and a novel treatment to slow progression
of CKD.
New NICE recommendations on CKD
• Do not adjust for ethnicity when calculating
eGFR in people of African or African-Caribbean
heritage. eGFR should be based on each
individual and their muscle mass
• Use the Kidney Failure Risk Equation (KFRE) to
give adults with CKD and their family members/
carers information about their five-year risk of
needing dialysis or a kidney transplant
• Dapagliflozin is recommended as an option for
adults with CKD* if:
• It is added on to optimised standard
care, including an angiotensin-converting
enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or an angiotensinreceptor
blocker (ARB), unless these are
contraindicated or not tolerated, and
• eGFR is 25-75 ml/min/1.73 m 2 and
• Urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (ACR) is
22.6 mg/mmol or more or
• Urine ACR is 3 mg/mmol or more and a
person has type 2 diabetes**
* Due to lack of evidence, NICE does not recommend
dapagliflozin for other people with CKD, including
people with type 1 diabetes and organ transplant
recipients.
** Since November 2021, dapagliflozin is no longer
licensed as a glucose-lowering treatment for people
with type 1 diabetes due to concerns about diabetic
ketoacidosis
Removing ethnicity from eGFR calculation
GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is the amount of blood
filtered through all the glomeruli (the tiny filters in the
kidneys) in a given time. Direct measurement is time
consuming and expensive, so GFR is estimated—the ‘e’
in eGFR. Until the new CKD guidelines were published,
the eGFR calculation used a person’s age, sex and
creatinine with adjustment for ethnicity, specifically
African and African-Caribbean heritage. NICE now
recommends that this adjustment for ethnicity should
no longer be made when calculating eGFR.
The inclusion of ethnicity in eGFR calculation and
other algorithms in medicine has become increasingly
controversial. Race is now recognised as a social
construct (an identity assigned based on rules made
by society), and does not accurately represent human
genetic variation. It also ignores diversity within and
among racial groups and may contribute to systemic
racism in medicine.
“ I think that SGLT2
inhibitors will in time be
used as widely as ACE
inhibitors“
Dr Rupert Major, Consultant Nephrologist at University
Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, comments:
“The ethnicity correction was first developed in
North America, where the ethnic breakdown of the
population is different from that of the UK. It was
based on the idea that African-Americans generally
had higher muscle mass compared to White people,
meaning that their eGFR was higher for the same level
of creatinine. The resulting overestimation of kidney
function could lead to inequalities in kidney care,
because eGFR often determines timing of vascular
access surgery, start of dialysis and transplant listing.
“At the same time, we need to anticipate unintended
consequences; for example, on patients’ eligibility
for important treatments like metformin, or when
medicines—for example, SLGT2 inhibitors (see below)
or chemotherapy—are dosed according to eGFR.
Interpretation of eGFR should always be individualised,
and we should support and educate patients to
understand its limitations and advantages,” he adds.
www.kidneycareuk.org