World Kidney Day Joint Steering Committee. Are your kidneys ok? Detect early to protect kidney health

Joseph A Vassalotti, Anna Francis, Augusto Cesar Soares Dos Santos Jr, Ricardo Correa-Rotter, Dina Abdellatif, Li-Li Hsiao, Stefanos Roumeliotis, Agnes Haris, Latha A Kumaraswami, Siu-Fai Lui, Alessandro Balducci, Vassilios Liakopoulos

1) Mount Sinai Hospital, Department of Medicine-Renal Medicine, New York, New York, USA; National Kidney Foundation, Inc., New York, New York, USA.; 2) Queensland Children's Hospital, Department of Nephrology, South Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.; 3) Faculdade Ciencias Medicas de Minas Gerais, Brazil, Hospital das Clinicas, Ebserh, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil.; 4) Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Mexico City, Mexico.; 5) Department of Nephrology, Cairo University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt.; 6) Renal Division, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.; 7) Second Department of Nephrology, AHEPA University Hospital Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.; 8) Nephrology Department, Péterfy Hospital, Budapest, Hungary.; 9) Tamilnad Kidney Research (TANKER) Foundation, Chennai, India.; 10) Division of Health System, Policy and Management, Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.; 11) Italian Kidney Foundation, Rome, Italy.

Early identification of kidney disease can protect kidney health, prevent kidney disease progression and related complications, reduce cardiovascular disease risk and decrease mortality. We must ask “Are your kidneys ok?” using serum creatinine to estimate kidney function and urine albumin to assess for kidney and endothelial damage. Evaluation for causes and risk factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) includes testing for diabetes and measurement of blood pressure and body mass index. This World Kidney Day we assert that case-finding in high-risk populations, or even population level screening, can decrease the burden of kidney disease globally. Early-stage CKD is asymptomatic, simple to test for and recent paradigm shifting CKD treatments such as sodium glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors dramatically improve outcomes and favor the cost-benefit analysis for screening or case-finding programs. Despite this, numerous barriers exist, including resource allocation, healthcare funding, healthcare infrastructure and healthcare-professional and population awareness of kidney disease. Coordinated efforts by major kidney non-governmental organizations to prioritise the kidney health agenda for governments and aligning early detection efforts with other current programs will maximise efficiencies.

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