Background

Accuracy of glomerular filtration rate estimating (eGFR) equations has significant implications in cirrhosis, potentially guiding simultaneous liver kidney allocation and drug dosing. Most equations adjust for Black race, partially accounted for by reported differences in muscle mass by race. Patients with cirrhosis, however, are prone to sarcopenia which may mitigate such differences. We evaluated the association between baseline eGFR and incident acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients with cirrhosis with and without race adjustment.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective national cohort study of veterans with cirrhosis. Baseline eGFR was calculated using multiple eGFR equations including Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration (CKD-EPI), both with and without race adjustment. Poisson regression was used to investigate the association between baseline eGFR and incident AKI events per International Club of Ascites criteria.

Results

We identified 72,267 patients with cirrhosis, who were 97.3% male, 57.8% white, and 19.7% Black. Over median follow-up 2.78 years (interquartile range 1.22–5.16), lower baseline eGFR by CKD-EPI was significantly associated with higher rates of AKI in adjusted models. For all equations this association was minimally impacted when race adjustment was removed. For example, removal of race adjustment from CKD-EPI resulted in a 0.1% increase in the association between lower eGFR and higher rate of AKI events per 15 mL/min/1.73 m² change (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Race adjustment in eGFR equations did not enhance AKI risk estimation in patients with cirrhosis. Further study is warranted to assess the impacts of removing race from eGFR equations on clinical outcomes and policy.