Chronic Kidney Disease Is Identified By A Blood Test For Creatinine

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is also termed as chronic renal disease. It is a progressive loss of renal function over a period of months or years. The symptoms of damaging kidney function are not specific, and might include feeling usually unwell and under going a diminishing appetite. Often, chronic kidney disease is an end result of screening of people known to be at risk of kidney problems, such as those suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes and those with a blood relative with chronic kidney disease.

Chronic kidney disease may also be indicative when it leads to one of its widespread complications, such as cardiovascular disease, anemia or pericarditis. Chronic kidney disease is generally identified by a blood test for creatinine. Higher levels of creatinine point towards a diminishing glomerular filtration rate (rate at which the kidneys filter blood) and as a result a reduced capability of the kidneys to remove waste products.

Creatinine levels may be normal in the early stages of CKD, and the condition is discovered if urinalysis (testing of a urine sample) shows that the kidney is letting the loss of protein or red blood cells into the urine. To completely investigate the cause of kidney damage, various kinds of medical imaging, blood tests and often renal biopsy (removing a small sample of kidney tissue) are devised to find out if there is a reversible cause for the kidney malfunction.

Recent professional regulations classify the seriousness of chronic kidney disease in five stages, with stage 1 being the mildest and generally causing few symptoms and stage 5 being a severe illness with poor life expectancy if not treated. Stage 5 CKD is also called established chronic kidney disease and is similar with the now outdated terms end-stage renal disease (ESRD), chronic kidney failure (CKF) or chronic renal failure (CRF).

There is no specific treatment unequivocally shown to reduce the worsening of chronic kidney disease. If there is another reason for CKD, such as vasculitis, this may be treated with treatments aimed to slow the damage. In more advanced stages, treatments may be necessary for anemia and bone disease. Severe CKD needs one of the forms of renal replacement therapy; this may be a kind of dialysis, but ideally constitutes a kidney transplant.

It is vital to distinguish CKD from acute renal failure (ARF) because ARF can be reversible. Abdominal ultrasound is usually performed, in which the size of the kidneys are measured. Kidneys with CKD are usually smaller less than 9 cm than normal kidneys with notable exceptions such as in diabetic nephropathy and polycystic kidney disease.

Another diagnostic hint that helps to differentiate between CKD and ARF is a gradual increase in serum creatinine as opposed to a sudden increase in the serum creatinine. If these levels are unavailable it is occasionally necessary to treat a patient briefly as having ARF until it has been confirmed that the renal impairment is irreversible.

In severe renal failure treated with dialysis, numerous uremic toxins accumulate. These toxins show various cytotoxic activities in the serum, have various molecular weights and some of them are bound to other proteins, primarily to albumin. Such toxic protein bound substances are receiving the attention of scientists who are interested in improving the standard chronic dialysis techniques used today.

• Juliana Breckinridge
• 16/06/2009, 3:59 PM
• 0 Comments