Authors

The recommendations for the first draft of this guideline resulted from a collective decision reached by informal discussion by the authors and, whenever necessary, with input from the Chair of the Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee. If no agreement had been reached on the appropriate grading of a recommendation, a vote would have been held and the majority opinion carried. However, this was not necessary for this guideline.

All authors made declarations of interest in line with the policy in the UK Kidney Association Clinical Practice Guidelines Development Manual. Further details can be obtained on request from The UK Kidney Association.

The evidence for these recommendations has been assessed using the modified GRADE system. (5) The modified GRADE system defines both the strength of the recommendations of the guideline authors and the level of evidence upon which each of the recommendations is based. This grading system classifies expert recommendations as “strong” (Grade 1) or “weak” (Grade 2) based upon the balance between the benefits and risks, burden and cost. The quality or level of evidence is designated as high (Grade A), moderate (Grade B), low (Grade C) or very low (D) depending on factors such as study design, directness of evidence and consistency of results. Grades of recommendation and quality of evidence may range from 1A to 2D.

Authors reviewed the evidence and came to a collective decision on the guidance, with input from the chair of the guidelines committee as needed.