title: The paucity of evidence supporting screening for stages 1-3 CKD in asymptomatic patients with or without risk factors.
abstract: The American College of Physicians recently published a guideline on screening for CKD that recommends against screening for CKD in asymptomatic adults without risk factors. The generally accepted criteria for population-based screening for disease state that screening should improve important clinical outcomes while limiting harms for those individuals screened. However, CKD screening does not meet these criteria. There is currently no evidence evaluating or demonstrating benefits for providing early treatment for patients identified via screening who do not have risk factors. On the other hand, harms are associated with the screening and include false-positive results, unnecessary testing and treatment, and disease labeling.
authors.affiliation: American College of Physicians, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; aqaseem@acponline.org.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Qaseem
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs Evidence-Based Synthesis Program, Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research, Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Department of Medicine, University of Minnesota School of Medicine, Minneapolis, Minnesota;
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Wilt
authors.affiliation: University of California, San Francisco, California; and.
authors.forename: Molly
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cooke
authors.affiliation: Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, Virginia.
authors.forename: Thomas D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Denberg
mesh_terms: D058070:Asymptomatic Diseases; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000191:economics; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D051437:Renal Insufficiency / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D019564:Unnecessary Procedures
keywords: CKD; clinical nephrology; microalbuminuria