Cystatin C-Based Equation to Estimate GFR without Race and Sex

To the Editor: In our view, the inferences by Pottel et al. (Jan. 26 issue)(1) are muddled. The National Kidney Foundation-American Society of Nephrology (NKF-ASN) Task Force on Reassessing the Inclusion of Race in Diagnosing Kidney Disease(2) asserted that race is a social, not a biologic, construct and successfully removed it from kidney-function estimation. The unifying approach of the Task Force was built on the principles of assay availability, ease of implementation, and the diversity of the population in the United States in their development of the equation, assessment of its performance, and focus on patient centeredness, including transparency. The . . .

Automated summary

We believe that the inferences made by Pottel et al. (1) are confusing. The National Kidney Foundation-American Society of Nephrology (NKF-ASN) Task Force on Reassessing the Inclusion of Race in Diagnosing Kidney Disease (2) argued that race is a societal, not genetic, construct and successfully eliminated it from kidney function estimation. The Task Force's approach was based on principles such as assay availability, ease of implementation, and the diverse population of the United States.