How are your kidneys?Bayer Korea unveils infographic to promote early diagnosis and treatment awareness of chronic kidney disease
Mar 13, 2025
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Infographic contains information that helps diagnose and treat chronic kidney disease patients with diabetes in Korea, diagnosing chronic kidney disease through urine albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and how to use urine test rods that can easily check albuminuria.
Chronic kidney disease is a disease with a high risk of progressing to renal failure if it is not detected early or if it is not properly treated, resulting in serious complications and early death. In particular, type 2 diabetes is a major cause of chronic kidney disease, and diabetes accounts for 48% of the diseases that cause end-stage kidney disease in Korea, so both the Korean Kidney Society and the Korean Diabetes Association regularly recommend albuminuria (UACR) tests and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) tests for early diagnosis of chronic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes.
In fact, in a survey of Korean medical staff conducted by Bayer Korea late last year, when asked about the need for UACR testing for early diagnosis of chronic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes, approximately 7 in 10 respondents (69%) answered that 'eGFR testing alone can miss early patients, so it is important to check for kidney damage through albuminuria testing. 'I know the importance, but it is difficult to conduct for practical reasons."The answer ' accounted for 19%, indicating high awareness of the need for UACR testing. In addition, when asked about the cycle of kidney testing in type 2 diabetes patients, 61% of respondents said they regularly perform it once every six months and 31% once a year, indicating that the majority of medical staff who are already conducting screening tests for diabetes-related kidney disease are more active.
On the other hand, when asked about how to perform screening tests for diabetes accompanying kidney disease in the clinical field, about half (50%) answered that both eGFR and UACR tests were performed, followed by 22% for UACR tests if suspected positive after eGFR and urinary test rod tests, and 12% for 'eGFR and urinary test rod tests'.15% of the respondents answered that they did not test 3 UACR but only tested the estimated glomerular filtration rate.
Albuminuria is an early indicator of chronic kidney disease, and an increase in UACR, which represents the ratio of albumin to creatinine in urine, is associated with increased kidney and cardiovascular risk, and a 30% reduction in UACR may reduce the risk level down in the KDIGO heatmaps on the prognosis of chronic kidney disease under the categories of eGFR and UACR. Albuminuria can be easily tested with a urine test strip.
Park Hyung-cheon, a professor of kidney medicine at Yonsei University's Gangnam Severance Hospital, said "This survey has raised awareness that it is important to perform both eGFR and albuminuria tests (yo test stick tests) for the diagnosis of chronic kidney disease in patients with type 2 diabetes, and the rate of performing both tests was more than twice as high as 28.9%, which is the 2021 implementation rate according to the diabetes adequacy evaluation report released by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, but doctors and others still have realistic difficulties in conducting UACR tests."He explained that the use of the test stick test was higher than expected at 34%, and it seems to be an effort of medical staff who do not miss the importance of kidney test even in limited medical conditions.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
