Impact of the New Glomerular Filtration Rate Formulas on Kidney Function Assessment in Living Kidney Donors and Candidates

New estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) equations that do not include a race coefficient have been created to better estimate kidney function, reduce inequities in kidney disease care, and improve the historically limited access to transplantation in African Americans. The impact of these new equations on estimated GFR (eGFR) in living donors pre- and postdonation is not known. METHODS: To address this, we conducted a single-center retrospective cohort study of 150 kidney donors and donor candidates. We calculated pre- and postdonation eGFR using the old and new equations and compared them with measured GFR by 2.8 mCi Tc-99m diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid clearance (mGFR(DTPA)) and 24-h creatinine clearance (mGFR(CrCl)). We evaluated the impact of the new equations on donation eligibility and postdonation eGFR. RESULTS: We found that using the new eGFR equations resulted in higher predonation eGFR compared with the old equations but remained significantly lower than mGFR(DTPA) and mGFR(CrCl). We also found that using the new eGFR equations would not exclude any potential donors based on our center’s GFR criteria for donation. At 6 mo postdonation, the new equations resulted in higher eGFR values compared with the old equations. CONCLUSIONS: The new eGFR equations continue to underestimate GFR in healthy donor candidates but would not exclude any potential donors from donation and resulted in higher eGFR predonation and postdonation in a predominantly White population. eGFR equations designed specifically for potential kidney donors are still needed for better kidney function assessment.