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What is Kidney Disease ?

Kidney Diseases can be divided into two categories i.e. Acute Kidney Disease and Chronic Kidney Disease.

Acute Kidney Disease

Acute kidney disease or Acute kidney Failure or Acute Kidney Injury as its also called, happens when your kidneys suddenly lose the ability to eliminate excess salts, fluids, and waste materials from the blood. Acute kidney failure can be life-threatening and requires intensive treatment. However, it is generally reversible. Major reasons of AKD/AKF are sudden dehydration, poisoning, sudden shock to body, septic shock, other serious illness or even at times it can be caused due to surgery.

Acute kidney disease/injury is generally reversible if treated properly and well within time.

Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a condition characterized by a gradual loss of kidney function over time.
As defined by National Kidney Foundation Chronic kidney disease includes conditions that damage your kidneys and decrease their ability to keep you healthy by doing the jobs listed. If kidney disease gets worse, wastes can build to high levels in your blood and make you feel sick. You may develop complications like high blood pressure, anemia (low blood count), weak bones, poor nutritional health and nerve damage. Also, kidney disease increases your risk of having heart and blood vessel diseases. These problems may happen slowly over a long period of time. Chronic kidney disease may be caused by diabetes, high blood pressure and other disorders. Early detection and treatment can often keep chronic kidney disease from getting worse. When kidney disease progresses, it may eventually lead to kidney failure, which requires dialysis or a kidney transplant to maintain life.

Stages of Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease has been broadly categorized into 5 stages, wherein Stage 1 includes nearly normal kidney function to Stage 5 which requires immediate dialysis or organ transplant.

Various stages of Kidney Disease can be categorized based on the Glomerular filtration rate or more popularly called GFR. Different studies and doctors have categorized kidney diseases stages based on different ranges of GFR. One of the more popularly used range of GFR is mentioned below:-

Stage 1 with normal or high GFR (GFR > 90 mL/min)
Stage 2 Mild CKD (GFR = 60-89 mL/min)
Stage 3 Moderate CKD (GFR = 30-59 mL/min)
Stage 4 Severe CKD (GFR = 15-29 mL/min)
Stage 5 End Stage CKD (GFR <15 mL/min)

The Stage 5 is also more widely also referred to as End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD).

Symptoms of Chronic Kidney Disease

Most of the times a Chronic Kidney Disease goes unnoticed until it causes damage to a large extent. However still one shall look for below mentioned symptoms to keep a check on the health of their kidneys:-

  • Feel more tired and have less energy
  • Have trouble concentrating
  • Have a poor appetite
  • Have trouble sleeping
  • Have muscle cramps at night
  • Have swollen feet and ankles
  • Have puffiness around your eyes, especially in the morning
  • Have dry & itchy skin
  • Need to urinate more often, especially at night.

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