Sex/Gender differences in nephrology

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects a substantial proportion of the world population, especially among the elderly, and it is increasingly recognized as a global public health problem.1 CKD has been recently divided into five different stages (Table 7.1). The classification is based on the level of glomerular filtration rate, except in stage 1, where GFR is normal but other markers of kidney damage are present, including abnormalities in the composition of blood or urine or abnormalities in imaging tests.2 In the U.S.A., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention3 estimated the prevalence of CKD (overall and by health risk factors and other characteristics), from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES): 16.8% of the US population aged more than 20 years had CKD, according to 1999–2004 NHANES data, compared with 14.5% from the 1988–1994 NHANES (i.e., NHANES III), an increase of 15.9% based on crude estimates of prevalence.