Refit Kidney Donor Profile Index without Race and Hepatitis C Virus

At a glance

Current policy

The Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI) is a measure that summarizes the quality of deceased donor kidneys and assigns a score. To get the KDPI score, you must first calculate the Kidney Donor Risk Index (KDRI) which is an estimate of the risk that a kidney will fail after transplant. A lower KDPI score is associated with kidneys that will function for a longer amount of time while a higher score is associated with a shorter amount of organ function time. Currently, kidneys from African American/Black and Hepatitis C (HCV) positive deceased donors have an increased KDPI making them appear less suitable for transplant. The committee proposes refitting the KDPI calculation without race or HCV to better reflect the likelihood of graft failure for kidneys from African American/Black and HCV positive deceased donor kidneys.

Supporting media

View presentation

Proposed changes

Remove the race and HCV positive variables from the KDPI to better reflect the likelihood of graft failure for kidneys from African American/Black and HCV positive deceased donors

Anticipated impact

What it's expected to do
- Better reflect likelihood of graft failure for kidneys from African Americans/Black and HCV positive deceased kidney donors
- Increase equity and transparency
- Potentially decrease the non-use of deceased donor kidneys
What it won't do
- It will not change organ allocation sequence for kidney distribution

Terms to know

Kidney Donor Risk Index (KDRI): An estimate of the relative risk of post-transplant kidney graft failure for a given donor compared to compared to the median/reference kidney donor
Kidney Donor Profile Index (KDPI): A measure that combines deceased donor factors including clinical parameters and demographics to summarize the quality deceased donor kidney into a single number
Hepatitis C: An infection caused by a virus that attacks the liver and leads to inflammation
Deceased donor kidney: A kidney from someone who recently died is removed with consent of the family or from a donor
Graft Failure: A failure of graft function for any reason, requiring renal replacement therapy and/or re-transplantation