What is Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)?

Chronic Kidney Disease simply refers to the permanent and gradual loss of the functional units of the kidney. In short, the kidney’s themselves are composed of millions of tiny “filters” we call nephrons (the functional units). Each nephron, acts like a water filter cleaning out your blood stream. Loss of these nephrons (Chronic Kidney Disease) may be the result of certain disease processes that can affect the kidneys such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Certain medications, other disease processes, and physical injury can also lead to CKD but diabetes is the number one cause of CKD.

When the kidneys start loosing their functional units, they do not remove waste products and extra fluid from the blood stream as efficiently. The end product of severe CKD is End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) requiring dialysis. This means that the kidneys have lost enough functional units to where they can longer clean out the blood stream. Thus, the goal in CKD is to slow the progression or prevent the loss of functional units and preserve renal (kidney) function.

What are the symptoms of CKD?

Chronic Kidney Disease is a “silent” condition meaning that there are no symptoms in the early stages. As the loss of kidney function progresses and waste products from normal processes in the body build up, patients will often times experience fatigue, nausea, confusion, an itchy sensation, and decreased appetite.

How do I know if I have CKD?

Chronic Kidney Disease can easily be found by drawing simple labs tests. Usually the lab tests that are used are a Basic Metabolic Panel (BMP) or a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP). Within these lab tests, the marker that is primarily used to evaluate your kidney function is creatinine. Creatinine is simply a byproduct of muscle use and is cleared by the kidneys. Based on how high or how low your creatinine is, we are able to measure your kidney function. Inherently, higher levels of creatinine in your blood stream relate to lower levels of kidney function. Blood Urea Nitrogen (another waster product of normal metabolic processes in the body) is also used along with creatinine as a marker of kidney function.

Is it important to find CKD early?

Early detection of CKD is extremely important as the goal in treating CKD is to slow progression and prevent the need for dialysis down the road. This is accomplished through aggressive treatment of the underlying process(es) causing CKD. Again, the most common cause of CKD is diabetes followed by hypertension (high blood pressure) with a wide range of other contributing factors.