MONDAY, Dec. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Blood levels of cystatin C may indicate which patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at higher risk for complications, according to research published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Carmen A. Peralta, M.D., of the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and colleagues assessed risks of death and other complications in 11,909 subjects (from two studies) diagnosed with CKD using a creatinine-based diagnostic equation only, a cystatin C-based diagnostic equation only, both, or neither, to define the role of cystatin C as a predictor of clinical outcomes associated with CKD.
In subjects from one trial, those whose diagnosis was based on the creatinine equation alone were at similar risk for premature death as people without CKD, but those diagnosed by the cystatin C equation had more than three times the risk, and those diagnosed by both had nearly twice the risk. In the second study, risk for early death again was similar for those diagnosed by the creatinine equation only and those without CKD; risk for premature death was 1.78-fold higher in those diagnosed by cystatin C equation only and 1.74-fold higher in those diagnosed by both. There was a similar pattern for cardiovascular disease, heart failure, and kidney failure outcomes.
"In conclusion, among adults diagnosed with CKD using the creatinine-based Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation, the adverse prognosis is limited to the subset who also have CKD according to the cystatin C-based equation. Cystatin C may have a role in identifying persons with CKD who have the highest risk for complications," the authors write.
Abstract
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