Abstract: Objectives To investigate the epidemiological status of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and acute kidney injury (AKI) in a low income rural region in Southern China. Methods Electronic medical records were retrospectively studied in a representative county-level hospital in Guangdong province. CKD was classified and staged by the estimated glomerular filtration rate according to the lowest blood creatinine level, and AKI was diagnosed and graded by the KDIGO criteria. Results In the 5 345 cases for CKD evaluation, 37.437% cases were complicated with CKD. The percentages of CKD stage 3, 4 and 5 were 31.993%, 2.806% and 2.601%, respectively. Most of the patients with stage 5 CKD were treated in the division of nephrology attached to internal medicine department. CKD incidence was 43.093%, 24.783% and 19.808% (χ2=430.0, P＜0.001) in the internal medicine department, the surgical department, and other departments, respectively. The percentages of CKD at the age of 20～39, 40～59, 60～79 and 80 years and older were 2.498%, 13.794%, 41.402% and 65.207% (χ2=1309.5, P＜0.001), respectively. In the 5 158 patients for AKI analyses, 9.442% were in accordance with the KDIGO-AKI criteria; the community- and hospital-acquired AKI were 5.428% and 4.013%, respectively; the percentages of stage 2 and 3 AKI were 27.721%. The incidence of AKI among different department was similar. However, the incidence of AKI increased with age. The diagnosed AKI patients were only 7.004% according to diagnostic code at discharge. Conclusion The incidence of CKD and AKI is high, but this situation is largely ignored in the low income rural region in Southern China. This is a big challenge to the prevention and therapy system of renal diseases in county-level areas.

Key words: Chronic kidney disease, Acute kidney injury, Rural low income region, Epidemiology, Data mining