Chronic Kidney Disease: National Clinical Guideline for Early Identification and Management in Adults in Primary and Secondary

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is of growing importance in the UK. The NHS is increasingly focussing on prevention and on the early detection and treatment of potentially progressive disease, whilst the prevalence of risk factors for CKD, such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension is rising. It is therefore a great pleasure to introduce this timely new guideline on CKD from the National Collaborating Centre for Chronic Conditions (NCC-CC) and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). The recommendations you will read here are the result of a thorough review of the published research. The field of renal medicine has a complex evidence base, and enormous thanks are due to the Guideline Development Group for their hard work and attention to detail, and to the NCC-CC Technical Team who worked enthusiastically alongside them. As for all our guidelines, full evidence tables summarising the clinical evidence base, and full details of the health economic modelling, are available from the Royal College of Physicians’ website. Readers involved in research in this field, and those who want to find the full rationale behind a particular recommendation, will find this an invaluable resource.