The importance of examining our kidney function
Each of us can get kidney disease at any time. However, if kidney disease is found and treated early, you can help slow or even stop it from getting worse. Most people with early kidney disease have no symptoms. That is why it is important to do preventive examinations.
If you suffer from one or more of the following, ask your doctor to check your kidney function:
diabetes and hypertension
• Acute kidney disease
• cardiovascular disease (ischemic heart disease, chronic heart failure, peripheral vascular disease)
• structural disorders of the urinary tract
• multisystemic diseases with potential renal impairment – eg systemic lupus erythematosus
• family history of end-stage kidney disease or hereditary kidney disease
• accidental detection of hematuria.
• Taking multiple medications
It is a fact that chronic kidney disease is asymptomatic, however in a further phase of it is accompanied by notable symptoms. Prompt diagnosis is important for several reasons.
First, because of the increased cardiovascular risk.
Second, because of the significant therapeutic interventions that can be made in the early stages of the disease, aiming to cure (rarely), or to delay the progression of renal damage.
And third, because of the “quiet” complications of the disease, which begin to appear during the third stage of chronic kidney disease. These complications include, among other things, anemia and bone diseases that, if diagnosed relatively early, can be treated with appropriate medication.