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Early morning kidney testing more effective

Category: Kidney Diseases

Individuals who have renal disease and undergo kidney testing to monitor whether their condition is progressing may benefit from scheduling their kidney tests for the morning, as opposed to other times of day. A new study has found that this method is superior for monitoring kidney condition than others.

The results of the study, which were published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, administered various testing methods to more than 700 patients with type 2 diabetes who were also being treated for renal disease.

They found that early morning kidney testing most accurately predicted the degree to which a patient's condition was progressing.

"From a clinical point of view, these results are very important, because they imply that collection of first morning voids, which is clearly more convenient than collecting a 24-hour urine, can be used for assessment," said Lambers Heerspink, who led the research.

He added that there are currently no standards for kidney testing in individuals who are in the early stages of the disease, but that these findings could help establish more widely recognized guidelines.