Doctors Alter Tool That Accounts For Ethnic Differences In Kidney Function, Displacing White Individuals On Wait List: Report

Original article here.

For years, modern medicine has acknowledged basic physiological differences among ethnicities that demand tailored healthcare approaches.

One notable distinction is the tendency for black individuals to exhibit significantly elevated serum creatinine levels compared to their white counterparts, sometimes up to six times higher. So what might be considered normal for a black individual could indicate end-stage kidney disease in a white individual.

When assessing the progression of kidney disease, doctors rely on an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) to gauge the rate at which the kidneys eliminate excess creatinine from the body. Moreover, the kidney transplant list prioritizes patients based on their eGFR, ensuring those with more severe conditions receive transplants first.

Prestigious institutions, however, have recently come together to say this methodology is racist. Deleting the race-based constants from eGFR scores.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OTPN) are among these institutions.

“The new formula will deem more than 10 million nonblack patients to have either less severe chronic kidney disease or no disease at all — while deeming more than 1 million black patients to have more severe disease or to have disease for the first time,” a team of researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology wrote.

“Because the new formula doesn’t include the necessary racial adjustments, however, these reclassifications misrepresent reality,” they added.

Ethnicity-based calculations are logically incorporated into the eGFR to accommodate varying normal creatinine levels. This approach ensures that individuals in critical condition receive priority on the transplant list, while those who are not severely ill do not unnecessarily receive transplants.

Now, a perfectly healthy black individual can receive a kidney transplant before a dying white individual.

Since January 1, 2023, 6,103 black individuals have displaced white individuals with more severe kidney disease on the list, resulting in an increase of 1.7 years in the wait time for sicker kidney patients.