Objectives Patients combined with chronic kidney disease (CKD) have severe clinical conditions and poor prognosis. Besides the increasing prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in China, the population absolute burden is substantial and should deserve careful consideration. The present study assesses the ethnic differences in renal function identified using estimated glomerular filtration rates between Chinese and Germany patients hospitalised in two cardiac wards.

Methods From Janunary 2012 to December 2012, 596 patients were consecutively enrolled from Germany and 898 from China, all of which were hospitalised in two cardiac wards. Baseline data, coronary characteristics and intervention options were collected and analysed. An eGFR was calculated with the modified MDRD formula suitable for Chinese and Germany populations respectively. And all patients were grouped into one of the five stages according to their eGFR values.

Results At baseline, compared to patients from China, average age, haemoglobin, fasting blood sugar, TC, TG, LDL-C, HDL-C, creatinine, ratio of female, diabetes, patients in CKD stages 4 (eGFR 30-15ml/min/1.73m²) and 5 (eGFR<15ml/min/1.73m²) and receiving coronary artery bypass graft were higher, and average LVEF and eGFR were lower among patients from Germany (all p < 0.05-0.01). Meanwhile, ratio of current smokers, patients with CKD stage 1 (eGFR≥90ml/min/1.73m²) and 2 (eGFR 60-89 ml/min/1.73m²) were lower in patients from Germany than in Chinese patients (all p < 0.01). However, there were no significant difference with regard to the prevalence of hypertension, coronary characteristics and the ratio of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention at baseline (all p > 0.05).

Conclusions There exist ethnic differences in renal function identified using estimated glomerular filtration rates between Chinese and Germany patients hospitalised in two cardiac wards. The association between the differences of baseline renal function and patients’ prognosis deserves further study.