Kidney Disease (Renal Disease) In this factsheet: The Facts on Kidney Disease Causes of Kidney Disease Symptoms and Complications of Kidney Disease Diagnosing Kidney Disease Treating and Preventing Kidney Disease Diagnosing Kidney Disease Unless the kidneys are swollen or theres a tumour, your doctor cant usually check for disease by feeling the kidneys. Instead, your doctor might test the urine and blood, take a scan of the kidneys, and test samples of kidney tissue. A routine urine test, called a urinalysis, checks for protein, sugar, blood, and ketones (created when the body breaks down fat). The urine is tested with a dipstick, which is a thin piece of plastic covered with chemicals that react when they touch substances in the urine. Your doctor will also check for red and white blood cells in the urine during a urinalysis (the urine is examined using a microscope). Depending on the suspected cause of the kidney problem, other tests may also be done. Treating and Preventing Kidney Disease Treatment of kidney disease depends on the type of disease, the underlying cause, and the duration of the disease. When treating kidney disease, your doctor will try to treat the original cause. Kidney infections can be treated with antibiotics if the infection is caused by bacteria. Inflammation due to an immune reaction is more difficult to treat. However, your doctor will try and control the immune reaction with immunosuppressant medications such as corticosteroids. These work only in some types of nephritis (inflammation of the kidney). Some people have to eat less salt and protein until the kidney can remove these substances from the blood properly. Taking a diuretic medication (or water pills) to make the body excrete more water and salt can also help control the swelling associated with kidney disease. If someone has acute kidney failure, treating the underlying cause will often return kidney function to normal. In almost all cases of kidney failure, it is very important for high blood pressure to be treated aggressively to prevent further damage from occurring and to delay the progression of the disease. Dialysis or transplantation treats end-stage kidney failure. In hemodialysis, blood is filtered through a tube thats inserted in the vein. The tube is connected to a machine that cleans the blood of wastes and the clean blood is returned to the body through another tube. Hemodialysis is usually performed in a hospital in three 4-hour sessions a week. In peritoneal dialysis, the space between the abdominal wall and organs is filled with a cleansing solution that absorbs toxins from the abdominal lining. The solution is then drained out into a bag. This procedure is done at home one to four times a day, seven days a week or overnight using a cycling machine. In kidney transplantation, diseased kidneys are replaced with a healthy one. Kidney transplants usually work at least 80% of the time. The greatest danger is that the body might reject the transplant. To prevent this, transplant recipients are given powerful medications to suppress the immune system; these have the potential drawback of making one more susceptible to infections and to some types of cancer. The risks are usually worth it since the new kidney improves a persons chance for a normal and health life.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 06:33:49 +0000
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