Rise or fall of glomerular filtration rate: does it matter?

A new observational study in Canadian patients shows a U-shaped association between longitudinal change in estimated glomerular filtration rate over a 4-year period and all-cause mortality. This study confirms the findings of previous studies done in middle-aged Taiwanese patients, community-dwelling Medicare beneficiaries, and chronic kidney disease patients. Future studies are needed to confirm whether such simple objective risk assessment tools can identify subgroups of people at maximum risk for adverse events.