03/01/2007March is National Kidney Month

Joseph Beals, MD

March is National Kidney Month, a time to create awareness for kidney disease and its causes. This article is to educate in brief about what kidneys do and how they fail.

The urinary system cleanses the blood and rids the body of excess water and waste in the form of urine. The urinary tract consists of two kidneys, two ureters (one from each kidney), tubes that drain urine from the kidneys into the bladder (a storage sac), and the urethra (the tube that transports the urine out of the body).

The kidneys, a pair of bean-shaped organs, are located at the bottom of the ribcage in the right and left sides of the back. Although the body is equipped with two kidneys, you can function with one reasonably healthy kidney if the other is damaged or removed. The kidneys receive blood from the aorta, filter it, and send it back to the heart with the right balance of chemicals and fluid for use throughout the body. The urine created by the kidneys is moved out of the body via the urinary tract.

Most people think their kidneys are just responsible for producing urine, but there’s a lot more to it. In addition to removing extra fluid and water from your body, the kidneys also control the quantity and quality of fluids within the body. They also produce Hormones and Vitamins that direct cell activities in many organs; the hormone renin, for example, helps control blood pressure. When the kidneys are not working properly, waste products and fluid can build up to dangerous levels, creating a life-threatening situation. Among the important substances the kidneys help to control are sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate HCO3- (measured indirectly as CO2), pH, calcium, phosphate, and magnesium.

When kidneys fail they are no longer able to clean waste from the blood and balance fluid and mineral levels. Let’s take a look at some of the most common causes of kidney failure.  In US, Diabetes and high blood pressure are the most common cause of chronic kidney failure. Other causes include glomerular disease, autoimmune disease like Lupus, birth defects, repeated Urinary tract infection and polycystic kidney disease. Kidney disease often proceeds silently over many years, with no signs or symptoms the patient can recognize or with signs that are too general for the patient to suspect kidney trouble. For that reason, routine blood and urine tests are especially important; they detect blood or protein in the urine and abnormal chemical level in the blood, such as creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (BUN).

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