Kidney Disease Research Updates
Fall 2007

NIDDK NEWS

NIDDK Convenes Urine Albumin Experts

Those who oversee programs with implications for the detection and treatment of diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are aware that urinary albumin is a key measure for detecting chronic kidney disease (CKD). Most diagnoses of CKD are based on identification of urine albumin, and not on a reduced glomerular filtration rate.

Many health professionals are not aware, however, that various issues prohibit health professionals from obtaining reproducible urine albumin results—a problem with public health, clinical care, and research implications.

For example, if one patient’s urine sample was split into three and sent to as many labs, it is possible that a clinician would receive three different results. One reason for this variation: each laboratory can use a different testing method.

Variation in test results is caused, in part, by the lack of availability of a standard method for measuring urine albumin and the lack of materials that can be used to ensure every laboratory gets the same result for a urine sample with a known amount of albumin. Also lacking are agreed-upon ranges and cutpoints for healthy levels of urine albumin for patients of various ages, races, and genders.

These topics are just two of the many measurement and reporting-related issues discussed during a recent meeting of urine albumin experts convened in Washington, DC, by the National Kidney Disease Education Program (NKDEP) and the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. Attendees included almost 20 representatives from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, research hospitals and institutions, the in vitro diagnostic industry, and other sectors of the clinical chemistry community––each with an established track record of resolving difficult problems faced by the clinical chemistry community. The group outlined related problems and posed strategies that will eventually help redefine who is identified for CKD and how patients are treated.

For more information, contact the NKDEP at nkdep@info.niddk.nih.gov.

NIH Publication No. 08–4531
November 2007

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