Quality of Life Impact of Delayed CKD

In ‘Quality of Life Impact of Delayed CKD Diagnosis,’ our experts delve into the following critical question:

How does delayed diagnosis of CKD affect patients’ quality of life and clinical outcomes, and how do these consequences reinforce the need for earlier identification in primary care?

Led by the moderator, the experts explore how to elevate the priority of CKD testing by reframing it around patient-centered outcomes, particularly quality of life and the heavy physical, emotional, and financial burdens associated with progression to end-stage kidney disease and dialysis. They emphasize that delayed CKD diagnosis amplifies cardiovascular risk, worsens comorbid conditions such as diabetes and heart failure, and increasingly constrains therapeutic options across many diseases. The discussion highlights that early-stage CKD is now a modifiable condition, with effective lifestyle and pharmacologic tools—such as RAS inhibitors, SGLT2 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, and nonsteroidal MRAs—that can meaningfully reduce kidney and cardiovascular risk when applied early. Panelists also challenge the false reassurance that dialysis is an adequate safety net, underscoring instead the high mortality, profound patient burden, and missed opportunities that result from diagnostic and therapeutic inertia.

Our next episode, ‘Understanding the Link Between Early CKD Diagnosis and Cardiovascular Outcomes,’ further explores chronic kidney disease, highlighting the reframing of uACR as a systemic marker of endothelial health that serves as a powerful, multiplicative predictor of cardiovascular events beyond traditional lipid or CRP testing. The panel emphasizes the urgency of translating decades of epidemiological evidence into immediate clinical practice to trigger aggressive, early intervention for high-risk patients.