Background: The aim of this study is to report Renal Replacement Therapy (RRT) incidence and prevalence rates, the percentage of incident patients with diabetes mellitus as cause of renal disease, the RRT modality mix and the transplant rate in different countries. The number of national or regional registries collecting and reporting data pertaining to traditional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors in prevalent dialysis patients is also examined.
Methods: Data on numbers of incident and prevalent RRT patients in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland for the year 2007 were collected from the UK Renal Registry (UKRR) database and collated to meet the specifications on the US Renal Data System (USRDS) international data collection form.
Results: In 2007, the incidence and prevalence of RRT in the UK were 110 and 759 per million of the population (pmp) respectively. Incidence of RRT placed the UK 34th out of the 43 countries reporting to the USRDS in 2006. In the majority of reporting countries, 20-44% have diabetes as the primary cause of end stage renal disease. Only the Finnish, Malaysian and US Renal Registries were found to routinely report attainment of cardiovascular risk standards.
Conclusions: A comparison among international renal registries about RRT epidemiology and reporting cardiovascular risk factors in prevalent RRT patients forms an important part of the quality improvement process and often allows for improving standards and performances between reporting countries. Despite the high CV morbidity associated with RRT, few renal registries routinely report data on CV risk management; where data are reported there is little agreement in what represents quality of care, making direct comparison difficult.
Copyright 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.