CKD hotspots around the world: where, why and what the lessons are. A CKJ review series

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the three causes of death that has had the highest increase in the last 20 years. The increasing CKD burden occurs in the context of lack of access of most of the world population to adequate healthcare and an incomplete understanding of the pathogenesis of CKD. However, CKD is not homogeneously distributed. CKD hotspots are defined as countries, region, communities or ethnicities with higher than average incidence of CKD. Analysis of CKD hotspots has the potential to provide valuable insights into the pathogenesis of kidney disease and to improve the life expectancy of the affected communities. Examples include ethnicities such as African Americans in the USA or Aboriginals in Australia, regions such as certain Balkan valleys or Central America and even groups of people sharing common activities or interests such as young women trying to lose weight in Belgium. The study of these CKD hotspots has identified underlying genetic factors, such as ApoL1 gene variants, environmental toxins, such as aristolochic acid and socioeconomic factors leading to nutritional deprivation and inflammation/infection. The CKD hotspots series of CKJ reviews will explore the epidemiology and causes in CKD hotspots, beginning with Australian Aboriginals in this issue. An online map of CKD hotspots around the world will feature the reviewed hotspots, highlighting known or suspected causes as well as ongoing projects to unravel the cause and providing a directory of public health officials, physicians and basic scientists involved in these efforts. Since the high prevalence of CKD in a particular region or population may only be known to local physicians, we encourage readers to propose further CKD hotspots to be reviewed.

Keywords: Balkan nephropathy; Chinese herbs; Mesoamerican nephropathy; aristolochic acid; epidemiology; genetics.

Fig. 1.

Some examples of CKD hotspots around the world and impact on our current understanding of CKD. By the end of the present CKJ review series, an interactive world map of CKD hotspots will be available at the CKJ website that will allow easy access to manuscripts in this series, and to information on ongoing research projects and epidemiological studies as well as contact information of physicians, researchers and health policy planners who wish to participate.