<qa>  What is the short term risk assessment in CKD patients?While there are proven therapies that slow CKD progression, these therapies can at times be harmful and costly. The ability to accurately predict the risk of CKD progression to ESRD would be extremely valuable. The short term versus lifetime risk of CKD progression should be taken into account when making risk based clinical decisions. In a representative CKD practice, the investigators compared the short term and lifetime risk assessment in our stage 3 CKD patients to determine whether decisions based on a short term risk assessment would underestimate the lifetime risk of CKD progression. The investigators also applied the short term risk assessment to our stage 4 CKD patients to determine the frequency with which ESRD risk may be overestimated in CKD stage 4. 