Background Evaluating the accuracy of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) derived from serum creatinine (SCr) and serum cystatin C (SCysC) equations requires gold standard measures of GFR. However, the influence of imprecise measured GFRs (mGFRs) on estimates of equation error is unknown. Study Design Diagnostic test study Setting & Participants 1995 participants from the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) Study and African American Study of Kidney Disease (AASK) with at least two baseline mGFRs from125I-iothalamate urinary clearances, one standardized Scr value, and one SCysC value. Index Tests eGFRs calculated from the 4-variable IDMS-traceable MDRD Study equation, the CKD-EPI SCysC equation, the CKD-EPI SCr-SCysC equation, and mGFRs collected from another pre-randomization visit Reference Tests A single reference mGFR, average of two, and average of three mGFRs; additional analysis limited to consistent mGFRs (difference fl 25% from the reference mGFR) Results We found that mGFRs had stable means but substantial variability across visits. Of all the mGFRs collected a mean of 62 days apart from the reference visit, 8.0% fell outside 30% of the single reference mGFR (1-P30). The estimation equations were less accurate as 12.1%, 17.1% and 8.3% of the eGFR from MDRD Study, CKD-EPI SCysC, and CKD-EPI SCr-SCysC equations fell outside 30% of the same gold standard (1-P30). However, improving the precision of the reference test from a single mGFR to the average of three consistent mGFRs reduced these error estimates (1-P30) to 8.0%, 12.5% and 3.9% respectively. Limitations Study population limited to those with CKD. Conclusions Imprecision in gold standard measures of GFR contribute to an appreciable proportion of the cases where estimated and measured GFR differs by more than 30%. Reducing and quantifying errors in gold standard measurements of GFR is critical to fully estimating the accuracy of GFR estimates.

The Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) project is the largest multicountry etiology study of childhood pneumonia since the Board on Science and Technology in International Development studies of the 1980s. However, it is not the only recent or ongoing pneumonia etiology study, and even with seven sites, it cannot capture all epidemiologic settings in the developing world. Funding providers, researchers and policymakers rely on the best available evidence to strategically plan programs, new research directions and interventions. We aimed to describe the current landscape of recent pneumonia etiology studies in children under 5 years of age in the developed and developing world, as ascertained by a literature review of relevant studies with data since the year 2000 and a survey of researchers in the field of childhood pneumonia. We collected information on the study population, study design, case definitions, laboratory samples and methods and identified pathogens. A literature review identified 88 studies with child pneumonia etiology results. As of June 2010, our survey of researchers identified an additional 65 ongoing and recently completed child pneumonia etiology studies. This demonstrates the broad existing context into which the PERCH study must be placed. However, the landscape analysis also reveals a multiplicity of case definitions, levels of clinician involvement, facility types, specimen collection, and laboratory techniques. It reinforces the need for the standardization of methods and analyses for present and future pneumonia etiology studies in order to optimize their cumulative potential to accurately describe the microbial causes of childhood pneumonia.

In older adults with severe or very severe CKD, HbA1c, glycated albumin, and fructosamine were not highly correlated with fasting glucose. The results suggest there may be no particular advantage of glycated albumin or fructosamine over HbA1c for monitoring glycemic control in CKD.

BackgroundIn acute kidney injury (AKI), medication dosing based on Cockcroft-Gault creatinine clearance (CrCl) or Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFR) are not valid when serum creatinine (SCr) is not in steady state. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of a kinetic estimating equation that incorporates fluctuations in SCrs on drug dosing in critically ill patients.MethodsWe used data from participants enrolled in the NIH Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network Fluid and Catheters Treatment Trial to simulate drug dosing category changes with the application of the kinetic estimating equation developed by Chen. We evaluated whether kinetic estimation of renal function would change medication dosing categories (≥60, 30–59, 15–29, and <15mL/min) compared with the use of CrCl or CKD-EPI eGFR.ResultsThe use of kinetic CrCl and CKD-EPI eGFR resulted in a large enough change in estimated renal function to require medication dosing recategorization in 19.3% [95 CI 16.8%–21.9%] and 23.4% [95% CI 20.7%–26.1%] of participants, respectively. As expected, recategorization occurred more frequently in those with AKI. When we examined individual days for those with AKI, dosing discordance was observed in 8.5% of total days using the CG CrCl and 10.2% of total days using the CKD-EPI equation compared with the kinetic counterparts.ConclusionIn a critically ill population, use of kinetic estimates of renal function impacted medication dosing in a substantial proportion of AKI participants. Use of kinetic estimates in clinical practice should lower the incidence of medication toxicity as well as avoid subtherapeutic dosing during renal recovery.

Adjudication, which comes from the Latin term “adjudicare” (to act as a judge), uses expert opinion to define and classify disease entities. The use of clinical adjudication may help to define more homogeneous disease subsets but comes at the expense of effort needed and generalizability. Here, we will describe the pros and cons of acute kidney injury (AKI) adjudication under varied circumstances. We will use heart failure as a paradigm and provide comparable examples from the current AKI literature.