Epidemiology of chronic kidney disease in a Sri Lankan population: experience of a tertiary care center.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a growing problem in Sri Lanka. Diabetes and hypertension are the main contributors to the disease burden. A new form of CKD of uncertain etiology (CKD-u) is the predominant form of CKD in certain parts of Sri Lanka, threatening to reach epidemic proportions. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out over a three-month period at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka to identify the underlying etiologic factors for the disease in a cohort of patients with CKD. A total of 200 patients were studied with a mean age of 50.57 years. Of them, 108 (54%) were in CKD stage V. Majority of the patients were from the western province (137, 68.5%) with only five (2.5%) from provinces with high prevalence of CKD-u. The most common underlying causes of CKD were diabetes (88, 44%) and hypertension (34, 17%). However, in patients younger than 40 years of age the most common cause was glomerulonephritis (20, 42.6%). Diabetes was the most common cause of CKD among patients from the western province (74, 54%). The prevalence of CKD-u was twice as high in patients from areas outside the western province compared with patients from this province (P > 0.05). The low prevalence of CKD-u in the study population could be the result of poor representation of patients from provinces with high prevalence of CKD-u.