The New Kidney and Bone Disease: Chronic Kidney Disease – Mineral and Bone Disorder (CKD–MBD)

Kidney is one of the most important organs in the regulation of mineral metabolism (Fukagawa et al., 2006). Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide public health problem that affects 5% to 10% of the world population, with increasing prevalence and adverse outcomes, including progressive loss of kidney function, cardiovascular disease, and premature death (Eknoyan et al., 2004). Calcium and phosphorus are fundamentally important in a wide array of biological functions. Abnormalities in calcium, phosphorus, parathyroid hormone (PTH), and vitamin D metabolism (usually referred to as disordered mineral metabolism) are common in patients with (CKD) (Block et al., 1998). Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in patients with CKD (London et al., 2003). It has been shown that in individuals with kidney failure on maintenance dialysis who are younger than 65 years, cardiovascular mortality is 10 to 500 times higher than in the general population, even after adjustment for sex, race, and presence of diabetes (Foley RN et al., 1998). Disturbances in mineral metabolism are common complications of CKD and an important cause of morbidity and decreased quality of life. Importantly, increasing evidence suggests that these disturbances are associated with changes in arterial compliance, cardiovascular calcification, bone disorders and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality (Palmer SC et al., 2005, Drueke et al., 2010). Traditionally, when defining bone diseases in CKD patients, this group of disorders has been usually termed renal osteodystrophy. However, beside strictly defined, the term renal osteodystrophy means only bone abnormalities. Recently, the KDIGO (Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes) conference group agreed that the definition of renal osteodystrophy should be only specific to bone pathology found in patients with CKD (Moe S. et al., 2006). It has been concluded that renal osteodystrophy is one component of the mineral and bone disorders that occur as a complication of CKD. It has been proposed that the evaluation and definitive diagnosis of renal osteodystrophy requires performing a bone biopsy. Histomorphometry is not essential for clinical diagnosis, but should be performed in research studies. There was an agreement that histomorphometric results are to be reported by use of the standard nomenclature