Analyzing Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic Kidney Disease

CKD, or Chronic Kidney Disease, refers to the impairment a person suffers in his/her kidneys, which may result in their reduced function, as time progresses. Chronic Kidney Disease is used as a replacement for previously held terms, such as the Chronic Renal Failure and Chronic Renal Insufficiency by the paediatric nephrology specialists. These terms were formerly used to describe the reduction of renal functions, whether to a large extent or otherwise. However, the adoption of the name Chronic Kidney Disease came about because it described the progression of the organ's functional loss (Wong, Warady and Srivastava, 2015).

Chronic Kidney Disease can be detected through various symptoms, which are common to other diseases. However, they point to the disease in its formative stage. Some of these symptoms, which point to the onset of the disease are:

Constant tiredness and feeling ill

The loss of one's appetite

Experiencing nausea

The unexplained loss of weight

Regular headaches

Scratching and drying of the skin

In some people, the symptoms are detected when the disease has progressed and become very severe. These symptoms are as listed below:

The skin may become darker than is natural for the person or lighter

The person's skin may become sensitive and be bruised easily

Sleeping becomes difficult

The patient cannot focus easily

There is pain in the skeletal structure

The hands swell and experience numbness as do the feet

The menstrual cycle is interrupted

The person is insatiably thirsty

There is sexual dysfunction

Sometimes, a patient will experience vomiting, especially after waking up (Miller, 2013).

Regardless of these symptoms being present, the Chronic Kidney Disease may stay undetected for a long time. This is because the symptoms that it presents are not specific to the disease, and thus, cannot point to it in a distinct way. However, for those who have been recently diagnosed with the disease, at whatever stage of the continuum, history and evaluation must be directed as the patients are followed up. In this way, the "implications of health" will be understood, especially at the level of the patient's kidney function. When the history of the patient is evaluated, emphasis should be on establishing a cause or what could have contributed to the development of the disease. There should also be an examination or establishment of the existence of hereditary factors (Arici, 2014). Sometimes, this examination of the disease may establish the existence of another disease whose presence has brought about the condition. Some of these underlying diseases could include: pericarditis and anaemia (Arora, 2015). When following up a patient, there are several things that must be checked on a regular basis, including how the person's appetite is progressing, their health, nutrition, any changes in weight and orthostatic changes through the measuring of the heart rate and blood pressure. Heart rate and blood pressure can be measured whilst standing or lying down. At the same time, the patient should be examined for systemic illnesses, such as uraemia (Arici, 2014).

Patients may actually experience some reactions to their medications, which may be adverse. Low blood pressure is just one of these reactions as is tiredness, rashes on the skin, feeling faint and dizzy, experiencing headaches and high levels of potassium. The patient may also experience impaired breathing as a result of submucosal and subcutaneous swelling, and this can be potentially fatal. Other drug reactions include: insatiable thirst, passing urine frequently, faintness and an abnormal pulse rate. A patient may also have reduced functions of the kidneys after the use of diuretics.

The use of Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agents (ESA), such as peginesatide and darbepoietin, may also have serious effects on the patient. ESAs are used where it is necessary to induce the production of red blood cells in the patient. The adverse effects of ESAs include: strokes, cardiac arrest and clots in the blood. Sometimes, more expensive binders, which are not calcium based, are used because of the adverse effects that calcium-based binders have. Some of these other binders also have reactions. For example, obstruction of the bowels, vomiting and constipation may be caused by phosphate induced binders. When vitamin D is used in an activated form to prevent secondary hyperthyroidism, there may be side effects in the form of hypercalcemia, which is, having very high levels of calcium. Rocatrol and Zemplar are such medications (Kathuria, 2015).