The Diagnostic Performance of a Clinical Diagnosis of Diabetic Kidney Disease

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD), a common cause of CKD and kidney failure, is usually diagnosed clinically. However, there is little evidence comparing the performance of a clinical diagnosis to biopsy-proven diagnosis.

Diagnostic performance of a clinical diagnosis was determined in a group of patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease who underwent kidney biopsy after an initial clinical diagnosis.

A data analysis of 54 patients who were part of a study cohort for a prospective analysis of cardiovascular and kidney outcomes and who had undergone kidney biopsy after an initial clinical diagnosis of DKD or non-DKD (NDKD) at enrolment was used. We determined the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of a clinical diagnosis of DKD.

A total of 37 of 43 patients clinically diagnosed with DKD also had biopsy-proven DKD, whilst only 1 of 11 patients who had clinically diagnosed NDKD had biopsy-proven DKD. Sensitivity was 97.4%, specificity was 62.5%, positive predictive value 86%, and negative predictive value 90.9%. Comparable values were obtained when analysis was restricted to those with primary rather than secondary diagnosis of DKD or when restricted to those with only DKD found at biopsy.

A clinical diagnosis of DKD has high sensitivity and is unlikely to overlook cases but may lead to overdiagnosis.