Determination of the glomerular filtration rate in patients with type 2 diabetes: an assessment of the agreement between 51Cr-EDTA plasma clearance and 99mTc-DTPA plasma clearance, 99mTc-DTPA renography and plasma creatinine prediction equation

Abstract Aims To investigate the agreement of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) determination between 51Cr-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (51Cr-EDTA) plasma clearance (GFREDTA) and 99mTc-diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (99mTc-DTPA) plasma clearance (GFRDTPA), the Gates 99mTc-DTPA renographic method (GFRGates) and the serum creatinine Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation (CKD-EPI, GFRSCr) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Methods Ninety-nine T2DM patients underwent GFR determinations simultaneously with 51Cr-EDTA and 99mTc-DTPA (using the slope-intercept technique and the Brochner-Mortensen correction) and also with GFRGates and GFRSCr. Results In the comparison between GFREDTA versus GFRDTPA, GFRGates and GFRSCr, the Bland-Altman statistic provided 0.0 ± 13.2, 17.4*± 28.8 and -5.9*± 30.1 (*p Conclusion In T2DM patients, a clinically acceptable agreement is demonstrated between 51Cr-EDTA and 99mTc-DTPA plasma clearance for GFR measurements, suggesting conditional interchangeability between those compounds. Both the CKD-EPI prediction equation and the Gates’ renographic method cannot assess GFR reliably, the latter appearing less unfailing than the former.