Abstract:

Background: Diabetes is a leading cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Using some creatinine-based equations is the most widely distributed method in evaluating the kidney function. it can give an inaccurate estimated result, especially in individuals with typical renal function Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) formula, Cockcroft-Gault (CG) equation, and the newly published formula of Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI) equation are widely used during estimation the kidney function practice.

Method:  A total of 31 studies have been included in the final review. These studies comparing three creatinine-based formulas (MDRD, CG, And CKD-EPI equations) among diabetic nephropathy (DN) patients. The studies have been downloaded from PubMed, ScienceDirect, and google scholar databases.

Results: CG equation overestimates the renal function among diabetes patients especially in lower glomerular filtration rate (GFR) levels. In addition, the CG equation overestimates the renal function in healthy patients more than the diabetic patients. In contrast, both CKD-EPI and MDRD formulas are underestimating the renal function, especially in higher GFR levels. CKD-EPI formula has been achieved better than MDRD and CG formulas in the renal function estimation. While CG performed better than CKD-EPI and MDRD formulas among obese diabetic nephropathy people.

Conclusion: The estimation of renal function by creatinine-based equation can be overestimated or underestimated the gold standard (mGFR).