[Prevalence of chronic kidney disease, stages 3, 4 and 5 in adults].

Introduction: Strategies that optimize early diagnosis of chronic kidney disease (CKD) are paramount to decrease progression of the disease and the burden of patients needing renal replacement therapy.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of CKD stage 3, 4 and 5 in people submitted to dosage of serum creatinine due to different causes, employing a dataset from a private laboratory of the city of Juiz de Fora comprising the years 2004 and 2005.

Methods: Diagnosis and staging of CKD were based upon glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimated from serum creatinine as recommended by the KDOQI of the National Kidney Foundation and the Brazilian Society of Nephrology.

Results: Prevalence of CKD stage 3, 4 and 5 was of 9.6%, with 12.2%, 5.8%, 25.2% and 3.7% among women, men, people >60 and < 60 years of age, respectively.

Conclusion: Prevalence of CKD found in our study may not only be interpreted as an epidemiologic indicator, but also discloses an alternative operational strategy to identify the disease. Furthermore it supports a proposal to include the estimation of GFR from serum creatinine in the laboratory report as an important and simple tool for early diagnosis of CKD.