What is Chronic Kidney Disease ?

This hub explains what CKD is and I will talk about stages of CKD and why they are important. 

You went to see your doctor or health care provider and then he or she mentioned about chronic kidney disease or CKD. You wondered what is it? The answer you received is already forgotten by the time you left his or her office. You are searching internet now for more answers and I am glad you found this.

CKD is a general term to cover any conditions causing kdiney damage or decrease the function of the kidneys. It used to be called kidney or renal failure, but that term was changed in favor of this new term because the old term implies very serious conditions and discouraging effects on patients. Also some kidney conditions need to be aware of and treated early before it "fails", so the new term allows doctors to make patients aware of their kidney conditions even before its function gets worse.

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Before we can understand the staging or level of CKD, we need to know GFR first.

GFR is the term used to defy how much kidney function a person has. Doctors can determine what GFR patients have by using simple blood test for creatinine value and then make calculation for GFR on that.

Creatinine is one of the products our body needs to eliminate mainly by way of urine. With normal kidney function, creatinine is kept low at around low 1 mg/dL. When kidney function decreases, creatinine is retained in the body more.

For simplicity reason, normal creatinine level (in low 1 ranges) is equivalent to GFR level around 100 mL/min.

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CKD are divided into 6 stages by using the presence of kidney damages or decrease in GFR (Glomerular Filtration Rate) as follows;

Stage 0 : include people at increased risk for kidney damages although they don't have any evidence of kidney damages yet. For example, if you have hypertension or diabetes, you are at increased risk for kidney damage although not everyone will develop CKD.

Stage 1 : Kidney damage with normal or increased GFR. People in this group have GFR > 90 mL/min (or essentially normal), but show evidence of kidney damage e.g. presence of significant amount of protein or blood in urine.

Stage 2 : Kidney damage with mild decrease in GFR. People in this group have GFR 60 - 89 mL/min

Stage 3 : Kidney damage with moderate decrease in GFR. People in this group have GFR 30 - 59 mL/min

Stage 4 : Kidney damage with severe decrease in GFR. People in this group have GFR 15 - 29 mL/min

Stage 5 : Kidney failure. GFR is less than 15 mL/min and mostly people in this group require renal replacement therapy (dialysis or transplantation) to survive.

One obvious reason for staging CKD is to know how far or advanced CKD of particular person is. This helps doctors make action plan for that patient.

The action plan for each stage of CKD is as follows;

Stage 0 : Test for the presence of CKD and try to decrease the risk

Stage 1 : Doctors will diagnose and treat in order to reverse, improve or delay progression of CKD. Also importantly, doctors need to work on reducing risk for coronary artery diseases (CAD)

Stage 2 : Monitor and estimate progression of CKD

Stage 3 : This is when complications of CKD appear. Doctors will plan to detect and treat those complications.

Stage 4 : CKD is advanced and the plan is to prepare patients for renal replacement therapy (dialysis and/or kidney transplantation)

Stage 5 : Renal replacement therapy is indicated.