Kidney Screening Project

La Renon Foundation in collaboration with the Gujarat State Family Physician’s Forum (GSFPF) conducted an initial phase of study with a Ahmedabad as the base. The study focused on Diabetic Nephropathy where screening of diabetic patients in Ahmedabad was done to study thepresence of CKD due to diabetes.

In the first phase 1254 diabetic patients were screened in this study. The patients were screened for Random Blood sugar, Blood pressure, s.creatinine, urine micro albumin, blood urea nitrogen, protein urea and eGFR was calculated of the patients to determine the prevalence of CKD amongst the population. Out of the 1254 patients registered due to lack of samples, 64 patients data was not considered in this study. The study concluded that amongst the 1190 patients (data of which was were considered a part of this study), almost 404 patients either had CKD or were at risk of developing CKD which is approximately 33.94%. eGFR was calculated for the aforementioned patient population and it was found that 292 patients had eGFR value less than 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 (All eGFR values to an average surface area of 1.73m2 confirming that at least 24.53% patients had confirmed CKD. The eGFR calculation was done via both MDRD equation and CKD-EPI Creatinine 2009 equation to standardize the results.

The progressive rise in the number of patients with ESRD due to Diabetic Nephropathy is a major social and economic problem in India. The assumption as proven by previous studies that >30% diabetic population have a risk of developing some form of nephropathy has been broken with clear defined nephropathy has been observed in approx. 34% patients. If this figure is hypothetically extrapolated to the present 62 million diagnosed Diabetic patient population, almost 15.19 million (24.53%) patients may have confirmed CKD and almost 21.05 million individuals suffering from diabetes have a risk of developing CKD. As per industry sources however, only 600,000-700,000 individuals are undergoing some form of CKD treatment irrespective of the reason for CKD. Thus, the study further confirms that in Indian population intervention from a primary healthcare provider is a must, if one wants to stop this growing epidemic.