Kidney specialists hope to raise awareness

Updated: Wednesday, March 7, 2007 9:00 AM CST

Kidney specialists hope to raise awareness

By COURTNEY KLEMM - H&R Staff Writer

DECATUR - When Zebe Abdullah first found out he had kidney disease, he was determined to keep himself off of dialysis for as long as possible.

"My doctor told me if I took all my medications and did what he said, I could last for 10 years before dialysis, so I've been trying to do what the doctor tells me," said Abdullah, who is now going on eight years.

As part of World Kidney Day on Thursday, Kidney Specialists of Central Illinois will be stressing the importance of early detection in cases like Abdullah's. In order to raise awareness about kidney disease prevention, the group will be holding an event 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the Decatur Memorial Hospital classrooms.

"The main purpose is to raise awareness that kidney disease is very common and a serious problem," said Dr. Mohammed Hasnain, director of the group. "One in nine Americans has kidney disease, and much more than that have risk factors for it. The worst part is that most people do not realize they have these problems."

Those with diabetes and hypertension are most at risk for developing chronic kidney disease, Hasnain said. Unlike other conditions, kidney disease is not associated with any symptoms or pain until total kidney failure, so blood or urine tests should be done to regularly screen for kidney disease, especially for people with high risk.

"Even with moderate failure, patients are not symptomatic," said Dr. Mustansar Qureshi of the Kidney Specialists of Central Illinois. "Kidney disease can only be detected with a blood or urine test. Most of the time, this is a silent killer, unless you specifically look for it and do simple tests to screen for it."

With early detection, some patients are able to postpone dialysis, said Dr. Mohammed Dawood, but even if dialysis is needed, it is not "the end of life," which is common misconception.

"Dialysis is used to clean the blood with machines, and with more advances, dialysis has become very simple," he said. "People can remain fully functional and on dialysis as long as they need to be."

The local World Kidney Disease event on Thursday will address all aspects of the disease, with a dietitian, social worker, nurse and kidney specialists available to provide information, Dawood said.

"If we can detect it early enough, we can prevent kidney failure for many years, so patients don't need dialysis or a transplant," Hasnain said.

Courtney Klemm can be reached at cklemm@herald-review.com or 421-6968.

URL: http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2007/03/07/news/local_news/1021644.txt