Patient Management and Clinical Outcomes Associated with a Recorded Diagnosis of Stage 3 Chronic Kidney Disease: The REVEAL-CKD Study

Introduction Guidelines for the treatment of chronic kidney disease (CKD) recommend early intervention and management to slow disease progression. However, associations between diagnosis and CKD progression are not fully understood. Methods REVEAL-CKD (NCT04847531) is a retrospective observational study of patients with stage 3 CKD. Data were extracted from the US TriNetX database. Eligible patients had two consecutive estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) measurements indicative of stage 3 CKD (≥ 30 and < 60 ml/min/1.73 m 2 ) recorded 91–730 days apart from 2015 to 2020. Diagnosed patients were included if their first CKD diagnosis code was recorded at least 6 months after their second qualifying eGFR measurement. We assessed CKD management and monitoring practices for the 180 days before and after CKD diagnosis, annual eGFR decline in the 2 years before and after CKD diagnosis, and associations between diagnostic delay and post-diagnosis event rates. Results The study included 26,851 patients. After diagnosis, we observed significant increases in the prescribing rate of guideline-recommended medications such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (rate ratio [95% confidence interval]: 1.87 [1.82, 1.93]), angiotensin receptor blockers (1.91 [1.85, 1.97]) and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (2.23 [2.13, 2.34]). Annual eGFR decline was significantly reduced following a CKD diagnosis, from 3.20 ml/min/1.73 m 2 before diagnosis to 0.74 ml/min/1.73 m 2 after diagnosis. Delayed diagnosis (by 1-year increments) was associated with elevated risk of CKD progression to stage 4/5 (1.40 [1.31–1.49]), kidney failure (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval]: 1.63 [1.23–2.18]) and the composite of myocardial infarction, stroke and hospitalization for heart failure (1.08 [1.04–1.13]). Conclusions A recorded CKD diagnosis was associated with significant improvements in CKD management and monitoring practices and attenuated eGFR decline. Recorded diagnosis of stage 3 CKD is an important first step to reduce the risk of disease progression and minimize adverse clinical outcomes. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov identifier, NCT04847531.