Screening, identifying, and treating chronic kidney disease: why, who, when, how, and what?

1 in 7 American adults have chronic kidney disease (CKD); a disease that increases risk for CKD progression, cardiovascular events, and mortality. Currently, the US Preventative Services Task Force does not have a screening recommendation, though evidence suggests that screening can prevent progression and is cost-effective. Populations at risk for CKD, such as those with hypertension, diabetes, and age greater than 50 years should be targeted for screening. CKD is diagnosed and risk stratified with estimated glomerular filtration rate utilizing serum creatinine and measuring urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio. Once identified, CKD is staged according to C-G-A classification, and managed with lifestyle modification, interdisciplinary care and the recently expanding repertoire of pharmacotherapy which includes angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin-II receptor blockers, sodium-glucose-cotransporter-2 inhibitors, and mineralocorticorticoid receptor antagonists. In this paper, we present the why, who, when, how, and what of CKD screening.