Kidney Diseases

Urinary Tract Infections

A urinary tract infection, also known as acute cystitis, is an infection that affects part of the urinary tract. When an infection affects the upper urinary tract it is known as pyelonephritis. Untreated urinary tract infections can lead to bladder infections or kidney infections.

Acute Renal Failure

Acute kidney injury, previously called acute renal failure, is an abrupt loss of kidney function that develops rapidly over a few hours or a few days.

Kidney Failure

Renal failure, also known as kidney failure or renal insufficiency, is when the kidneys fail to adequately filter waste products from the blood. When your kidneys lose their filtering ability, dangerous levels of wastes and toxins accumulate and your blood composition may become out of balance.

Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease, also known as chronic renal disease, is a progressive loss in kidney function over a period of months or years.

Progressive loss, or decreased kidney function is determined by a decrease in glomerular filtration rate, or the rate at which blood is filtered by the kidney. Decreased kidney function is detected by measuring the levels of waste products (creatinine or urea) in the blood. Depending on the cause, hematuria (blood loss in the urine) and proteinuria (protein loss in the urine) may also be identified on urine tests. Those diagnosed with kidney disease may experience increased fluid in the body that can lead to swelling, increased acid levels, raised levels of potassium, decreased levels of calcium, increased levels of phosphate and, in later stages, anemia. Bone health may also be affected.

Diabetic Kidney Disease

Diabetic kidney disease, or diabetic nephropathy, is the disease that diabetes causes in the kidney. It is a complication of type 1 or type 2 diabetes caused by damage to the kidneys’ delicate filtering system. The kidneys contain millions of tiny blood vessel clusters (glomeruli) that filter waste from your blood. High blood sugar causes damage to these blood vessels and leads to diabetic nephropathy, which may result in kidney failure or irreversible end-stage kidney disease, requiring dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Hypertensive Nephropathy

Chronic high blood pressure can cause damage to the kidney, resulting in hypertensive nephropathy.

Glomerulonephritis

Glomerulonephritis is a term used to refer to several kidney diseases characterized by inflammation of the small blood vessels in the kidneys. Primary causes are intrinsic to the kidney. Secondary causes are associated with certain infections caused by bacterial, viral or parasitic pathogens, drugs or systemic disorders such as Lupus.

Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a form of cancer that begins in the white blood cells, also known as the plasma cells. Multiple myeloma can cause kidney damage requiring dialysis treatments.

Goodpasture’s Syndrome

Goodpasture’s syndrome, also called anti-glomerular basement antibody disease, is an autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to make antibodies that attack the kidneys and lungs.