Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Diagnosis

2014-11-18 02:01

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) refers to numerous kidney cysts on kidneys, and the kidney cysts will be increased and get enlarged over time, which will finally cause kidney failure. In order to have make a good prognosis with PKD, they may need to have early diagnosis and have effective treatment. Then how to diagnose the polycystic kidney disease (PKD)?

Identification

Kidneys are two important organs for people, which can help remove the toxins and wastes in blood. When patients suffer from PKD, they will have multiple kidney cysts on kidneys, and the kidney cysts will be increased and get enlarged, which will oppress the surrounding kidney tissues and cause kidney damage. They patients will have kidney dysfunction.

Symptoms

Since PKD is a progressive kidney disease, so patients may have no symptoms in their early stage. However, with the enlargement of kidney cysts, patients will gradually suffer from some symptoms. The common symptoms include protein in urine, blood in urine, kidney infection, urinary tract infection, frequent urination, high blood pressure, back pain, side pain, headache, enlarged kidneys, enlarged abdomen, kidney stones, etc. All these symptoms can be regarded as the signs of PKD.

Types

PKD can be divided into two parts, ADPKD and ARPKD, and ADPKD is the most common PKD for patients, which is also called adult polycystic kidney disease. Patients with this form of kidney disease will have symptoms when they are 30-40 years old. If one of the parents have PKD, so the children will have 50% chance of developing the PKD.

ARPKD is a rare form of PKD, which is often diagnosed soon after birth. If the two parents both have PKD, the risk of passing on the disease is 25% with each pregnancy.

Diagnosis

PKD is a progressive kidney disease, so just from routine blood and urine tests cant find any abnormalities in early stage. When the kidney cysts are larger than a half inch long, the PKD can be diagnosed with image tests. The doctors usually use an ultrasound examination to help test the abdominal area, which can find whether there are cysts on kidneys. If at least two cysts are present in each kidney by the age of 30 years old, and there is a family history, then patients can be diagnosed with ADPKD.

Above are the diagnosis for PKD patients, and we hope this will be helpful for PKD patients to have early diagnosis. When patients are diagnosed with PKD, they may need to have early treatment and stop the progression of PKD, which can help make a good prognosis for them.

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