What is Chronic Kidney Disease?
Kidneys perform dozens of vital functions for our body. Some of which are: regulating blood pressure, removing toxins from the body, maintaining bone health, stimulating the production of RBCs etc.
When a person is suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD) their kidneys start losing function over time. If CKD is diagnosed in the early stages severe damage to kidneys can be prevented with the help of medication and treatment.
What are the symptoms and signs of chronic kidney disease?
Most people don’t have any symptoms and signs of chronic kidney disease during stage one or two. But as soon as the disease progresses some symptoms that may start showing up are:
back pain
pain in the chest
difficulty concentrating
difficulty falling asleep
swelling on the hands and feet
fatigue and weakness
puffiness around the eyes
dry, scaly or itchy skin
urinating more or less than usual
loss of appetite
vomiting and nausea
cramps in the muscles
What are the causes of CKD?
Chronic kidney disease is caused by:
Diabetes
Hypertension
Lupus
Glomerulonephritis
Malformed kidneys
Polycystic kidney disease
Tumors and stones in the kidneys
Recurrent urine infections
What are the different stages of chronic kidney disease?
There are five different stages of chronic kidney disease:
Stage 1:
During stage one chronic kidney disease is very mild, which means that it is really hard to detect it unless patients are going through routine blood and urine tests.
Once the disease is detected , what patients can do to stop it from progressing is maintain a healthy lifestyle, avoid smoking, include physical activity, manage blood sugar and blood pressure levels.
Stage 2:
During stage two of chronic kidney disease, your kidney’s function reduces from 90% to 60-89%. Since there is no cure for CKD, and only adequate treatment can help stop or slow down the progression of disease it is better to see a Nephrologist in Lahore rather than getting treatment from a general physician during this stage.
Stage 3:
Stage three is further categorised into two stages: 3A and 3B, during 3A patients’ kidneys are functioning between 45 to 59% and in stage 3B patients’ kidneys are functioning between 30 to 59%.
Some complications associated with this stage are bone disease, anaemia and high blood pressure. Vitamin D supplements, blood pressure controlling medications, and cholesterol lowering medicines work as a treatment during this stage.
Stage 4:
Stage four CKD means that patients’ kidneys are working between 15 to 29%. Dialysis is recommended as a treatment option during this stage. Patients can either visit a dialysis clinic or get it done by healthcare professionals at their own place.
Stage 5:
During this stage patients’ kidneys are working 15% which means that their kidneys have failed or are about to fail. In this case dialysis and kidney transplant are the only available treatment options.
How can chronic kidney disease be diagnosed?
To diagnose Chronic kidney disease a Nephrologist in Islamabad asks patients to share their symptoms first. Then they take in information about patient’s medical condition and family history.
Once they have all the required information they will begin the diagnosis by physically examining blood vessels and heart. They might do a neurological exam too.
After getting done with clinical examinations they order certain blood, urine and imaging tests to know about the level of damage that CKD has done to kidneys.
How can chronic kidney disease be treated?
First step of treatment is to treat the underlying cause that is making the condition worse. Some examples of treatments used during this step are:
Medications to treat high blood pressure
Medications to lower blood sugar levels
Some other things that a patient needs to do while they are suffering from CKD are: maintain a healthy body weight by eating healthy and avoid smoking.
Second step of treatment is to treat end stage kidney disease. During this stage these two methods are used:
Dialysis:
Dialysis is used when kidneys are unable to remove excess fluids and waste products from the blood. For this treatment a machine is used to filter excess fluids and waste from the blood.
Kidney transplant:
For this treatment method an unhealthy kidney is replaced with a healthy donor kidney using a surgical procedure.
