CKD prevalence estimation is central to CKD management and prevention planning at the population level. This study estimated CKD prevalence in the European adult general population and investigated international variation in CKD prevalence by age, sex, and presence of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. We collected data from 19 general-population studies from 13 European countries. CKD stages 1-5 was defined as eGFR,60 ml/min per 1.73 m 2 , as calculated by the CKD-Epidemiology Collaboration equation, or albuminuria .30 mg/g, and CKD stages 3-5 was defined as eGFR,60 ml/min per 1.73 m 2 .CKD prevalence was age-and sex-standardized to the population of the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU27). We found considerable differences in both CKD stages 1-5 and CKD stages 3-5 prevalence across European study populations. The adjusted CKD stages 1-5 prevalence varied between 3.31% (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 3.30% to 3.33%) in Norway and 17.3% (95% CI, 16.5% to 18.1%) in northeast Germany. The adjusted CKD stages 3-5 prevalence varied between 1.0% (95% CI, 0.7% to 1.3%) in central Italy and 5.9% (95% CI, 5.2% to 6.6%) in northeast Germany. The variation in CKD prevalence stratified by diabetes, hypertension, and obesity status followed the same pattern as the overall prevalence. In conclusion, this large-scale attempt to carefully characterize CKD prevalence in Europe identified substantial variation in CKD prevalence that appears to be due to factors other than the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.

SummaryBackground and objectives Not all fluids may be equally beneficial for reducing the risk of kidney stones. In particular, it is not clear whether sugar and artificially sweetened soda increase the risk.Design, setting, participants, & measurements We prospectively analyzed the association between intake of several types of beverages and incidence of kidney stones in three large ongoing cohort studies. Information on consumption of beverages and development of kidney stones was collected by validated questionnaires.Results The analysis involved 194,095 participants; over a median follow-up of more than 8 years, 4462 incident cases occurred. There was a 23% higher risk of developing kidney stones in the highest category of consumption of sugar-sweetened cola compared with the lowest category (P for trend=0.02) and a 33% higher risk of developing kidney stones for sugar-sweetened noncola (P for trend=0.003); there was a marginally significant higher risk of developing kidney stones for artificially sweetened noncola (P for trend=0.05). Also, there was an 18% higher risk for punch (P for trend=0.04) and lower risks of 26% for caffeinated coffee (P for trend,0.001), 16% for decaffeinated coffee (P for trend=0.01), 11% for tea (P for trend=0.02), 31%-33% for wine (P for trend,0.005), 41% for beer (P for trend,0.001), and 12% for orange juice (P for trend=0.004).Conclusions Consumption of sugar-sweetened soda and punch is associated with a higher risk of stone formation, whereas consumption of coffee, tea, beer, wine, and orange juice is associated with a lower risk.

Importance Kidney stone disease is common and may be associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). However, previous studies of the association between kidney stones and CHD have often not controlled for important risk factors, and the results have been inconsistent. Objective We examined the association between a history of kidney stones and the risk of CHD in three large prospective cohorts. Design, setting, and participants Prospective study of 45,748 men and 196,357 women in the United States without a history of CHD at baseline who were participants in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (HPFS, 51,529 men aged 40–75 years followed since 1986), Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) I (121,700 women aged 30–55 years followed since 1976) and II (116,430 women aged 25–42 years followed since 1989). The diagnoses of kidney stones and CHD were updated biennially during follow-up. Main outcome measure CHD was defined as fatal or non-fatal myocardial infarction (MI) or coronary revascularization. The outcome was identified by biennial questionnaires and confirmed through review of medical records (fatal and non-fatal MI). Results Out of a total of 242,105 participants, 19,678 reported a history of kidney stones. After up to 24 years of follow-up in men and 18 years in women, 16,838 incident cases of CHD occurred. After adjusting for potential confounders, among women, those with a reported history of kidney stones compared with those without had an increased risk of CHD in NHS I (incidence rate (IR) 754 vs 514/100,000 person-years; multivariate HR 1.18, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.28) and NHS II (IR 144 vs 55/100,000 person-years; multivariate HR 1.48, 95% CI 1.23 to 1.78); there was no significant association in men (IR 1,355 vs 1,022/100,000 person-years; multivariate HR 1.06, 95% CI 0.99 to 1.13). Similar results were found when analyzing the individual end-points (fatal and non-fatal MI, revascularization). Conclusions Among two cohorts of women, a history of kidney stones was associated with a modest but statistically significant increased risk of CHD; there was no significant association in a separate cohort of men. Further research is needed to determine whether the association is sex-specific.

BackgroundEnvironmental factors have been associated with the outbreak of chronic kidney disease (CKD). We evaluated the association of Cadmium (Cd) exposure with the risk of CKD in U.S. adults who participated in the 1999-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES).Methods5426 subjects ≥ 20 years were stratified for values of urinary and blood Cd and a multivariate logistic regression was performed to test the association between blood and urinary Cd, CKD and albuminuria (ALB) after adjustment for age, gender, race/ethnicity, body mass index and smoking habits.ResultsSubjects with urinary Cd > 1 mcg/g and subjects with blood Cd > 1 mcg/L showed a higher association with ALB (OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.23, 2.16; P = 0.001). Subjects with blood Cd > 1 mcg/L showed a higher association with both CKD (OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.01, 2.17; P = 0.046) and ALB (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.10, 1.82; P = 0.007). An interaction effect on ALB was found for high levels of urinary and blood Cd (P = 0.014).ConclusionsModerately high levels of urinary and blood Cd are associated with a higher proportion of CKD and ALB in the United States population.