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Identifying Kidney Failure Why You Need Your Kidneys

Kidney Failure Kidney Failure Basics

Identifying Kidney Failure

Summary & Participants

The statistics are sobering. Approximately 20 million people are affected today by kidney and urinary tract diseases, and more than 50,000 people die each year as a result of these diseases.

Medically Reviewed On: June 19, 2008

Webcast Transcript

In the early presentations of kidney disease, unless there's a fulminant disorder, the general practitioner will not detect anything. Fulminant disorders are disorders called acute glomerular nephritis, things of that sort, which are systemic illnesses that present with a variety of features -- high blood pressure, swelling of the legs, bleeding in the urine, difficulty breathing -- a major illness requiring hospitalization.

The more subtle forms of chronic kidney failure are very indolent. If the patient told the physician that they're urinating more frequently at night, that might be an early, subtle symptom of chronic kidney failure that would largely be discarded, thinking they drank too much before they went to bed.

LISA CLARK: Do most urine tests that you get at a general physical screening cover these sorts of levels that you're talking about, the creatinine and albumin?

LEONARD STERN, MD: In general, those are routine screening tests so that the standard blood work would look for an index of kidney function, as well as liver function and the blood count and things of that sort.

LISA CLARK: If you have any of the symptoms, you should let your doctor know, of course -- any of the major symptoms for kidney disease. Maybe we should just hit those really quickly. They include frequency of urination, change in frequency of urination?

LEONARD STERN, MD: Frequency of urination might be a symptom of a urinary tract infection, and many people get urinary tract infections. It's very common in women, very common in older men with prostate disease, not necessarily a cause of kidney failure or an acute symptom related to an illness.

JAI RADHAKRISHNAN, MD: It should lead one to seek advice from a practitioner, because it could well harbor a kidney problem.

LISA CLARK: What other source of things might a patient notice about their physical situation that changes?

JAI RADHAKRISHNAN, MD: If a person feels perfectly and suddenly feels run down, tired, weak, they should definitely seek help from a practitioner. Kidney failure could be the cause for all this. If there's pain in the flanks where the kidneys are, if you have pain down there and it's recurrent and disabling, especially, you should definitely get seen, because there could be a stone sitting there, causing progressive kidney damage. If you have a burning of the urine, if you feel scratching in the skin, these are some of the signs, or you've lost your appetite just out of the blue, for no reason, or you're not able to concentrate, your mind's wandering. All these could say that you could have pretty severe kidney disease that needs to be looked at.

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