Is There Any Relationship Between PKD and Skin Itching

2014-07-01 06:35

Question: My 9 years old daughter is diagnosed with PKD last year and last night, she was up most of the night due to skin itching. So I’d like to if there is any relationship between them? And what can I do now?

Answer: Answer for your question is yes. PKD may cause skin itching when it develops to a relatively serious stage.

PKD is a kidney disorder marked by countless cysts in kidney. Lower back pain is the leading complain of it, but with the deterioration of kidney condition, skin itching may appear and it usually appears as a result of the following several conditions:

1. Hyperparathyroidism

When PKD develops to renal insufficiency stage, hyperparathyroidism appears easily. Hyperparathyroidism cause elevation of PTH (parathormone) which can cause hypercalcemia.Under such a cases, calcium deposit in skin, which can lead to skin itching.

2. Metabolic disorder of phosphorus

Your daughter may also suffer from skin itching due to metabolic disturbance of phosphorus which is resulted from kidney’s inability to balance the level of phosphorus. Under such a case, you need to arrange low-phosphorus diet for your daughter and meanwhile help her to ingest much more calcium by eating high calcium foods or taking calcium supplements. Additional, it skin itching becomes very severe, medicines called phosphate binders such as calcium carbonate and calcium acetate will be helpful.

3. Nerve damage

In early stage of PKD, there is no obvious physical discomforts. However, when it progresses to uremia, other internal organs might be damaged by toxins that should be removed by kidney. Nerve damage is a possible for your daughter to suffer from skin itching. And in such a case, skin problem can be alleviated through dialysis.

Lastly, there are different causes for skin itching in PKD.and for your daughter, I do not know the exact cause, so it is hard for me to give any personalized suggestions. Besides, if you have your daughter’s test report, I suggest you to send it to pkdtreatment169@gmail.com, our nephrologists will help to figure out the root cause according to the test report and then reply you with helpful suggestions for reference.

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