#2976 CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE WITH COMORBIDITY IN PRIMARY CARE: CARDIORENAL TREATMENT, QUALITY OF CARE AND PROGNOSIS
Authors: Borg Rikke , Kriegbaum Margit , Andersen Christen Lykkegaard , Persson Frederik 
Published: June 2023

Background and Aims

Diabetes, heart failure, hypertension and cardiovascular disease are common in primary care, and frequently coexist with impaired kidney function (CKD), further increasing risk of cardiovascular- and renal events as well as premature death. These comorbidities therefore call for more complex treatment regimens and monitoring. Our aim was to describe the prevalence, management, and prognosis of individuals with CKD and additional comorbidity in a large primary care cohort.

Method

Individuals were included from the Copenhagen Primary Care Laboratory (CopLab) Database, which contains 112 million biochemistry results from persons followed in primary care between 2000 and 2015 and divided into three groups based on (CKD-EPI) eGFR (&gt;60 ml/min, 30-59 ml/min and &lt;30 ml/min) with or without comorbidity in the form of diabetes or heart failure. We included all individuals with at least two measurements of creatinine. The date of the second measurement of creatinine was considered index date (baseline). The database has been combined with pharmacological data (The Danish National Prescription Registry), outpatient clinic visits and hospitalizations (The Danish National Patient Registry - NPR), and mortality information (The Danish Civil Registration System). Heart Failure was defined by ICD-codes in NPR from outpatient clinic visits and hospitalizations and we calculated crude event rates for a range of outcomes according to comorbidity. Diabetes was defined as at least one measurement of plasma or serum glucose ≥11 mmol/l or HbA1c ≥48 mmol/mol in CopLab. We evaluated monitoring of eGFR, albuminuria (UACR) and use of guideline-recommended pharmacological therapy (i.e. RAS-blockers and statins) in each group.

Results

In the total primary care population of 171,134 individuals of which 63.8% were female, 8.3% had impaired kidney function (eGFR&lt;60ml/min). The median follow-up for the three eGFR groups was 8.4, 4.7 and 2.0 years, respectively. Overall, event rates were higher in individuals with impaired kidney function and comorbidity, i.e. mortality in the group with eGFR&lt;30 ml/min with concurrent heart failure; 42.8 per 100 patient-years (PY). Event rates for ESKD were low in general (0.03 to 0.51 per 100 PY) except for individuals with eGFR&lt;30 ml/min (2.1 to 3.5 per 100 PY). Annual monitoring of eGFR was high in all groups (&gt;90%) with increasing frequency in individuals with impaired kidney function, and measurement of UACR was low in groups with non-diabetic CKD (10-30%). Antihypertensive treatment was frequently prescribed in eGFR &lt;30 ml/min; overall 87.6% and 94.8% with coexisting diabetes and 92.8% with coexisting heart failure. The use of RAS inhibition was more used in diabetes and in heart failure (&gt;50%) but less with low eGFR. Statin therapy was used in approximately 50% of individuals with diabetes, regardless of CKD group, but was used to a much less extent in non-diabetic CKD (20-24%).

Conclusion

Our data from a large primary care cohort demonstrate a high prevalence of coexisting diabetes and/or heart failure with CKD, increasing the risk for adverse outcomes. The quality of CKD care in general practice may be improved, especially in the non-diabetic population.