MONDAY, July 31, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Too many U.S. primary-care doctors fail to properly diagnose and refer patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to specialists, says a Johns Hopkins study.
The report included 304 doctors across the United States who were asked to diagnose "mock" patients' symptoms.
Of the 126 kidney specialists in the study, 97 percent properly diagnosed CKD, and 99 percent would have recommended specialized kidney care for the patient.
However, only 59 percent of the 89 family doctors and 78 percent of the general internal medicine doctors fully recognized the signs and symptoms of CKD, the study said. Referrals to nephrologists were made by 76 percent of the family doctors and 81 percent of the general internists.
The findings were published in the August issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
"We, as physicians, can certainly do better," study lead author Dr. L. Ebony Boulware, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.
"Millions of people have kidney disease, but a substantial number may not have their disease recognized. Simply put, our study shows that primary care physicians are not recognizing kidney disease in high-risk patients as often as they should," Boulware said.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about chronic kidney disease.
