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A member asked:

How do you know if you have kidney disease?

2 doctor answers3 doctors weighed in
Dr. Eric Umbreit
Urology 16 years experience
Blood tesy: The most common, albeit not most accurate, measure is creatinine level in the blood. This can be used as a close estimate of overall kidney function at a reasonable cost and patient tolerability.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
Dr. Jack Rubin
Nephrology and Dialysis 50 years experience
Kidney disease : The simplest way is to have some blood taken as well as a urine analysis. If your BUN and creatinine are in the normal age, you probably have no significant renal disease. However, your creatinine level is dependent on your muscle mass and age, so that needs to be evaluated as well. If your urine analysis shows no protein, white blood cells or blood you are very unlikely to have kidney disease.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.

Similar questions

A 31-year-old member asked:

Do you know which is worse to have: kidney disease or cancer?

1 doctor answer2 doctors weighed in
Dr. Tarek Naguib
Nephrology and Dialysis 42 years experience
Depends on what kind: For instance some kinds of skin cancers are easily removable and kidney failure is much worse to have. Also, the opposite is true, late kidney failure is treated by dialysis and possibly transplant and therefore is much less dangerous than a late cancer that has spread all over the body. There many many types of cancers and many types of kidney diseases. It is best to compare apples to apples !
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.
A 35-year-old member asked:

What to do about kidney disease?

1 doctor answer2 doctors weighed in
Dr. Craig Smith
Urology 37 years experience
Depends on diagnosis: A nephrologist is the specialist who organizes care of renal ( kidney ) preservation or function. Depending on the underlying diagnosis he can help orchestrate medical management. The more common nephrologic conditions include nephrosclerosis often seen in patients with hypertension and or diabetes. Glomerulonephritis, of which there are several types, will require specific treatments based on the subtype.
Created for people with ongoing healthcare needs but benefits everyone.

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Last updated Dec 18, 2014

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