Untreated Kidney Failure May Be More Prevalent Among Elderly Adults.

HealthDay  (6/20, Dallas) reports, "Untreated kidney failure is more prevalent among older adults than those who are younger," according to a study  published in the June 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Investigators found adjusted rates of untreated kidney failure were more than five times higher among patients aged 85 years or older than among those aged 18 to 44."

        "This held true across the range of estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR)," MedPage Today  (6/20, Neale) reports. The results "suggest that the incidence of advanced kidney disease in the elderly may be substantially underestimated by rates of treated kidney failure alone and that untreated kidney failure may be more common than initiation of renal replacement at older ages," the study authors wrote. An accompanying editorial  observed that the study "highlights a potentially sizable unmeasured burden of untreated kidney failure among older adults."