Many have kidney disease and don't know it

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Published: July 10, 2010
Updated: 11:17 a.m.
Many have kidney disease and don't know it
By FRED SWEGLES
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

San Clemente pediatric kidney specialist wants to raise awareness as part of a National Kidney Foundation fundraiser.

By Dr. Donald Prime's count, based on figures from the National Kidney Foundation, as many as 375,000 of Orange County's 3 million residents may have kidney disease, and many don't know it. Nor will they feel symptoms until it may be too late to reverse.

Another 375,000 are at risk, the San Clemente physician says, due to diabetes, high blood pressure and other diseases. Kidney disease is up 30 percent over the last decade, he says.
Article Tab : Dr. Donald Prime, center, with his PrimeXL8 team at the National Kidney Foundation's inaugural Orange County Kidney Walk.
Dr. Donald Prime, center, with his PrimeXL8 team at the National Kidney Foundation's inaugural Orange County Kidney Walk.

Prime, a pediatric kidney specialist, wants to raise awareness because, he says, the sooner you seek treatment, the less severe the consequences. On June 19 he sponsored a team in the National Kidney Foundation's inaugural Orange County Kidney Walk at UC Irvine. His team has raised $1,470 and still is accepting donations at www.kidneywalk.org. Locate the walk among California walks and select his team, PrimeXL8.

We asked him about kidney disease:

Q. What causes it?

A.  Any number of genetic diseases. Or (it) may be acquired during one's lifetime ... caused by conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.

Q. At what age does it afflict most people?

A. All ages, from birth to old age.

Q. What can it do to you?

A.  It can lead to kidney failure. Once kidney failure is severe enough, one needs either dialysis or a kidney transplant to live.

Q. Symptoms?

A. Most chronic kidney disease is silent and does not produce symptoms until it is very far advanced. At that point the initial symptoms are often very non-descript, such as fatigue or poor appetite. Chronic kidney failure often causes a myriad of different secondary problems such as severe anemia, hypertension and weakening of the bones.

Q. Any recourse?

A. Many of these secondary problems can be treated with various medications, but if the kidney disease is not diagnosed until it is far advanced, we usually cannot at that point reverse it. Eventually in many cases, kidney dialysis and kidney transplantation are needed.

Q. How hard is it to acquire a kidney?

A. On average it takes 4 years for an adult with severe chronic kidney failure to obtain a kidney transplant. With children the wait time is about 2 years.

Q. What if you can't?

A.  If a good "match" for a kidney transplant cannot be found, one then has to undergo dialysis for the rest of one's life. Usually this is hemodialysis, where one is hooked up to a dialysis machine for at least 4 hours usually 4 days out of each week.

Q. Is there a test to ID kidney disease?

A. A routine urinalysis can screen for some kidney diseases. A combination of a physical examination, blood and urine tests will pick up most kidney diseases, but unfortunately not all. If there is suspicion of underlying kidney disease because of family history or predisposing illnesses such as diabetes, then more specific tests are obtained.

 

Q. How can people avoid kidney disease?

 A. Some kidney disease is unavoidable, since it is genetic. Others, however are caused by things that we do have some control over ... high blood pressure or diabetes that are not well controlled or chronic use of certain types of analgesic medications (pain relievers). There is even some evidence now that a high salt or high protein diet may lead to chronic kidney disease.

Q. Where can we learn more?

A. From the National Kidney Foundation at kidney.org  or kidneysocal.org.

Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127

http://www.ocregister.com/news/kidney-257177-disease-many.html