Author:

Abstract:

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is an important pathology. Its prevalence is rising in western countries due to the "grey epidemic". In Belgium, care trajectories were designed for multidisciplinary follow-up of CKD patients. This had led to an increased attention for this pathology. On the other hand, the current inclusion criteria for this care trajectory(estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) chronically below 45 ml/min and/or proteinuria > 1 g/24 h) may be questioned as they will include many elderly patients who will probably never reach end-stage renal disease. Thus, we propose alternative criteria based on longitudinal cohort studies. The parameters applied in these alternative criteria are: eGFR and its evolution over time, the age of the patient, the existence of albuminuria and of metabolic complications of renal failure.