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The following is a summary of “Bias-corrected serum creatinine from UK Biobank electronic medical records generates an important data resource for kidney function trajectories,” published in the January 2025 issue of Scientific Reports by Gorski et al. 

Loss of kidney function poses a significant health burden. Kidney function is commonly assessed using estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) based on serum creatinine, with UK Biobank offering both study center and electronic Medical Record data (eMR, “GP-clinical”). 

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to evaluate whether eMR-based and SC-based creatinine values can be jointly used for eGFR decline research. 

They compared eMR-based with SC-based creatinine by calendar year (n = 70,231) and found a year-specific multiplicative bias for eMR-based creatinine that decreased over time (factor 0.84 for 2007, 0.97 for 2013). They derived eGFR based on SC- and bias-corrected eMR-creatinine, yielding 454,907 individuals with ≥ 1 eGFR assessment (2,102,174 assessments), including 206,063 individuals with ≥ 2 assessments over up to 60.2 years (median 6.00 assessments, median time = 8.7 years), and obtained eMR-based information on kidney disease or renal replacement therapy. 

The results showed an annual eGFR decline of 0.11 (95%-CI = 0.10–0.12) without bias-correction and 1.04 mL/min/1.73m² /year (95%-CI = 1.03–1.05) with bias-correction, in line with literature. 

Investigators found that bias-corrected eMR-based creatinine values enabled a 4-fold increase in the number of eGFR assessments in UK Biobank suitable for kidney function research. 

Source: nature.com/articles/s41598-025-85391-7