What is it about?

Hyperkalemia, a serious condition caused by abnormally high potassium levels in the blood, is common in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The risk of hyperkalemia is increased by renin-angiotensin-aldosterone inhibitors (RAASi), a cornerstone of CKD treatment. Guidelines support the cardio-renal benefits of continuing RAASi treatment and suggest ways to reduce potassium levels. However, physicians frequently manage hyperkalemia by decreasing the dose or discontinuing RAASi. Understanding the burden of hyperkalemia and real-world treatment pathways may help improve hyperkalemia management in patients with CKD. We describe the burden of hyperkalemia in patients with CKD, and the patterns of key treatments used to manage hyperkalemia in real-world clinical practice in the UK and Japan. Retrospective data are taken from DISCOVER CKD, an ongoing multinational observational study of patients with CKD (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04034992). Among patients eligible for analysis, the prevalence of hyperkalemia was 20.9% in the UK and 7.4% in Japan. Patients with hyperkalemia were more likely to have multiple conditions than those without hyperkalemia, particularly hypertension, heart failure, type 2 diabetes, and acute kidney injury. Most patients were taking RAASi at baseline. Despite limited evidence supporting the discontinuation of RAASi in patients with hyperkalemia, 50.6% of patients with CKD in the UK and 29.2% in Japan stopped taking RAASi within 90 days.

Featured Image

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Hyperkalemia Burden and Treatment Pathways in Patients with CKD: Findings From the DISCOVER CKD Retrospective Cohort, Kidney360, May 2024, Wolters Kluwer Health,
DOI: 10.34067/kid.0000000000000468.
You can read the full text:

Read

Contributors

Be the first to contribute to this page