Doctors who specialize in treating kidney disease in kids are called pediatric nephrologists. Not only are they specifically attuned to the particular diseases that affect kids, they also consider the effects that treatment and disease have on...
High blood pressure, or hypertension, can occur in children as it does in adults. However, common causes for the disorder differ between the two age groups. While primary hypertension--high blood pressure not due to another disorder--predominates...
According to the text "Clinical Methods," flank pain is a "sensation of discomfort, distress, or agony in the part of the body below the rib and above the ilium." In short, pain on the sides or small of the back is flank pain. Patients who...
Scarring of the kidneys is often presumed when there is persistent elevated urine protein, or serum creatinine. However, doctors are often unable to tell the cause of the scarring unless a biopsy is performed. This can be problematic as doctors...
Healthy kidneys prevent proteins in the blood stream from spilling into the urine. This is why doctors often first suspect kidney disease when a patient presents with elevated urine protein, or proteinuria. Proteinuria often occurs when the...
Unless an obvious cause exists, such as diabetes or hypertension, biopsy proves necessary to determine the cause of kidney damage. Imaging techniques such as electron microscopy and immunofluorescence studies have grown so much so that many cases...
Inflammation of the kidneys occurs in many immunologically mediated kidney diseases such as immunoglobulin A nephropathy, membranoproliferative glomerular nephritis, membranous nephropathy and many others. This inflammation suggests the presence...
Proteins of many types circulate in the blood. The liver produces many of the blood proteins from building blocks absorbed through the intestine from the diet. Normally, the kidneys prevent protein losses through the urine by conserving blood...
According to the National Kidney Foundation (NKF), 1-in-9 Americans has kidney disease. About 26 million American adults have chronic kidney disease, and millions more are at increased risk. Lack of routine screening makes this problem worse...
Kidney disease--also called renal disease--includes an array of different diseases. Some involve structural defects that were present before birth and others are generally not present until early adolescence. Some diseases are very aggressive and...
The kidneys filter impurities from the blood. When physicians want to speak of how effectively this filtration happens, they refer to the patient's kidney function or renal function. Diseases that affect renal function in children are...
After your kidney transplant, your nephrologist will regularly test your blood and urine. The many lab tests he will order include measuring the protein in your urine. Healthy kidneys keep protein in the blood. Protein getting lost into the urine...
