Chronic kidney disease on rise in people with diabetes, blood pressure: Study

According to the ongoing nationwide study, among people suffering from diabetes and blood pressure, at least 30% were detected with chronic kidney disease, a condition which rarely shows any early symptoms and leads to gradual kidney failure.

The prevalence of chronic kidney disease in India is on rise among those dealing with chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, according to the first phase of a Pan-India study conducted by Indian Society of Nephrology. According to the ongoing nationwide study, among people suffering from diabetes and blood pressure, at least 30% were detected with chronic kidney disease, a condition which rarely shows any early symptoms and leads to gradual kidney failure. Our kidneys filter out wastes and excessive fluids from the blood through urine, however in cases of advanced chronic kidney disease, people have dangerous build ups of fluid, electrolytes and wastes. (Also read: World Diabetes Day 2022: Doctors on tips to become diabetes-free and achieve remission)

High risk patients like those with chronic diseases should be screened annually as there are very good drugs available at early stages that can control degree of protein leakage,

The said study is taking place in tier 1 and tier 2 cities and aims to screen 2.5 lakh patients in the coming months. The phase 1 results of the study are out which covered around 1.5 lakh patients. Earlier studies on chronic kidney disease in India have been relatively smaller, covering only a few thousands of patients.

Dr Sanjeev Gulati, Principal Director- Nephrology & Kidney Transplant at Fortis Hospital Vasant Kunj is conducting the study along with Dr A K Bhalla, Dr Narayan Prasad and Dr Abhas. Dr Gulati shared the findings of this study exclusively with HT Digital over a phone call.

"The idea is to know what is the prevalence of chronic kidney disease, what are the causes, because most of the patients were coming to us at very late stages. There are five stages and patients are coming to us on stage 4 and stage 5 chronic kidney disease. We don't know the current burden, there are different studies including one which I did way back in 1999 on stage 5 chronic kidney disease which seemed to suggest that diabetes was the No. 1 cause of patients turning up for dialysis. When people are turning to doctors for hypertension, diabetes, we wanted to look at the prevalence of chronic kidney disease in this subgroup of patients. This is an all-India study being done in four zones and the target is to screen 2.5 lakh patients in different tier 1 and tier 2 cities," Dr Gulati shared the findings of his study in a telephonic conversation with HT Digital.

Sharing more details about the study, Dr Gulati said that in the first phase they roped in close to 1500 physicians of all the cities and trained them while the second part was about implementation where the company chipped in with resources, provided with simple point of care testing uristics.

CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE ON RISE

"In the segment of the people who are coming to the doctors, 30% of them have got microalbuminuria or proteinuria, which is the earliest sign of kidney disease - the no. 1 cause of it is diabetes, followed by blood pressure both lifestyle diseases. When we look at previous smaller studies done among thousands, they have shown 15%, 10% or 18% max (prevalence of chronic kidney disease in diabetics and hypertensive people), while this study is telling 30%. There is an increase in the prevalence of chronic kidney disease. We need to encourage people to have good sugar and BP control as it also prevents them from chronic kidney disease," Dr Gulati told us.

UNAMANGED BLOOD SUGAR OR BP MAIN CULPRITS

Dr Gulati said that people are not aware that they can have kidney damage when they have diabetes or blood pressure. He said it's especially true in a lot of people who do not manage their BP or sugar levels properly for years together trying untested therapies like homoeopathy or herbs which we discourage.

EARY SCREENING AND DIAGNOSIS IS THE KEY

"There are fairly standardised treatments available in kidney disease but you can't wait for symptoms. High risk patients like those with chronic diseases should be screened annually as there are very good drugs available at early stages that can control degree of protein leakage," he said.

"Through our studies, we hope to convince the health ministry that there should be a national kidney disease screening programme because right now the dialysis programme is only treating tip of the iceberg. A lot of people are going to die before they reach dialysis. You end up spending 50 times more money in tertiary prevention. Primary prevention is picking these people early by screening them and treating them," concludes Dr Gulati.