Tests For Kidney Cancer
Kidney cancer might be found because of signs or symptoms a person is having, or it might be found because of lab tests or imaging tests a person is getting for another reason. The actual diagnosis of kidney cancer is made by looking at a sample of kidney cells in the lab or sometimes by how the kidney looks on an imaging test. If you think you have possible signs or symptoms of kidney cancer, see your doctor.
What Happens During A Kidney Urine Test
You complete 24-hour urine tests at home. For a 24-hour urine test, your provider will give you a container to collect urine. On the day of the test:
Why Is It Important To Check Kidney Function
When your kidneys do not work as they should, waste can build up in your blood. This can make you sick. If you have long-term kidney disease, you may not have any symptoms until your kidney function is very low.
Blood and urine tests can help show how well your kidneys are working. They can help your doctor know:
- If the disease started all of a sudden or if you have had it a long time.
- The cause of the kidney damage.
- The best type of treatment to slow the damage.
- How well treatment is working.
- When to begin dialysis or have a kidney transplant.
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What Are The Signs& Symptoms Of Chronic Kidney Disease
Chronic kidney disease can progress silently without many signs or symptoms.2 In fact, most people living with kidney damage or mildly reduced kidney function are not aware of having CKD3, highlighting the importance of talking to your doctor about testing if you have the following risk factors or symptoms:
Symptoms Of Kidney Disease
Kidney disease is called a silent disease as there are often few or no symptoms. In fact, you can lose up to 90 per cent of your kidneys functionality before experiencing any symptoms. Some signs and symptoms include:
- a change in the frequency and quantity of urine you pass, especially at night
- blood in your urine
- changes in the appearance of your urine
- puffiness around your legs and ankles
- pain in your back
- pain or burning when you pass urine
- high blood pressure.
If your kidneys begin to fail, waste products and extra fluid build up in your blood. This, and other problems, gradually leads to:
- tiredness and inability to concentrate
- generally feeling unwell
- bad breath and a metallic taste in the mouth.
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Unknown Reasons Of Low Blood Platelet Count
its called idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura.thrombo- means related to platelets, -cytopenia means lack of cells, purpura means a rash of purple spots on the skin caused by internal bleeding due to lack of platelets.Low platelets count by unknown reasons is the commonest in children.If you have a blood infection with some BacteriaBacteria inside the blood will kill platelets and cause low platelets in blood test, persons used to eat raw or undercooked meat are prune to such bacteria-caused low platelets.Escherichia coli is the commonest bacteria causing low blood platelets.Recommendations: Platelets count test, Stool examination, Urine examination, and Anaerobic blood culture.A woman has a blood clot will use up a large numbers of platelets and decrease them in testsThrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura is the meidcal term for low blood platelets count after forming large clots in the body, whereas the term thrombotic means by clotsHigh prothrombintest or elevated D-dimer test can predict the blood clots
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What Is Kidney Disease
Your kidneys — bean-shaped organs on either side of your spine — are small, but they have a big job when it comes to your health. They filter extra water and waste from your blood, make urine, and help control your blood pressure. If they are damaged and stop working like they should, you have kidney disease.
Several things increase your chances of getting it:
African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and Native Americans are at greater risk than other groups.
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What Do The Stages Of Chronic Kidney Disease Refer To
The five stages of CKD refer to how well your kidneys are working. Kidney disease can get worse in time. In the early stages , your kidneys are still able to filter waste out of your blood. In the later stages , your kidneys must work harder to filter your blood and may stop working altogether.
The goal at each stage of CKD is to take steps to slow down the damage to your kidneys and keep your kidneys working as long as possible.
What You Need To Know
You have two kidneys, located near the middle of your back, just below the rib cage. Each is about the size of your fist. Tiny structures called nephrons are inside each kidney and they filter the blood. There are about a million of them.
The kidneys are responsible for removing wastes, toxins and extra water from the body balancing important salts and minerals in the blood and releasing hormones to help control blood pressure, manage anemia and help maintain strong bones. The waste and extra water removed by the kidneys become urine. The urine flows through tubes called ureters. It goes to your bladder, which stores the urine until you go to the bathroom.
When the kidneys are damaged, they can’t filter blood as they should. The result can be a build-up of wastes in your body, as well as other problems that can harm your health.
One in three American adults is at high risk for developing kidney disease today. Yet most arent able to identify the signs and symptoms. One in nine American adults has kidney disease and most dont know it.
At first, kidney disease is silent. Symptoms often dont appear until the kidneys are badly damaged. Many people don’t have any symptoms until their kidney disease is advanced. Blood and urine tests are the only way to know if you have kidney disease.
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What Is Chronic Kidney Disease
Chronic kidney disease, sometimes called CKD, is an umbrella term for several conditions that affect the kidneys, but it generally means permanent and usually progressive damage to the kidneys caused by a variety of conditions.
Learn Your ABCs of Kidney Disease
Johns Hopkins nephrologists Drs. Sumeska Thavarajah and Daphne Knicely offer a free educational class most months, from 5 6 p.m. at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. For more information, call .
Lab Tests For Kidney Infection
The most common lab tests to help diagnose a kidney infection are two types of urine test:
Urinalysis For this test, youll urinate into a container at your doctors office or lab. A sample of your urine will be viewed under a microscope, to look for bacteria or white blood cells, which can indicate an infection.
Its possible for healthy people to have bacteria in their urine, so its important for urinalysis results to be viewed in the context of your symptoms, rather than as definitive evidence of an infection.
Urine Culture To help determine what kind of bacteria are causing your infection and guide your treatment, a sample of your urine may be placed in a container where the bacteria can grow for one to three days.
In some cases, your doctor may order a blood test to look for signs of an infection. This can involve two different tests:
Peripheral Blood Smear For this test, a thin layer of your blood is viewed under a microscope to look for an elevated white blood cell count and for neutrophils, the type of white blood cells that fight infection.
Blood Culture A sample of your blood is placed in a container to encourage bacterial growth, then examined over one to three days for bacteria that would indicate an infection.
While 20 to 30 percent of kidney infections show positive blood culture results, theres little evidence that this testing helps guide treatment or improve outcomes, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
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Keep Your Kidneys Healthy
You can help lower your risk for CKD or keep it from getting worse by eating healthy, being active, and keeping your blood pressure and cholesterol levels in your target range. Make sure to take care of your kidneys if you are at risk for CKD. If you have diabetes, get tested for kidney disease once each year. Having your kidneys checked regularly gives you the best chance for finding and treating CKD early.
What Does Routine Blood Testing Show
Considering blood testing so you can find out just how healthy you really are? Most medical professionals want their patients to have routine blood tests performed about every 12 months. The results from their blood work will give them a great deal of information. That helps them to provide their patients with better medical care services. Even when someone is feeling fine, it is possible for them to be experiencing health problems and is why blood testing is so important.
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When Urinalysis And Other Urine Tests Help In Kidney Stone Diagnosis
In addition to imaging tests, doctors usually order urine tests to help determine what type of stone you may have and why you are developing stones. This information can help your doctor better advise you about how to prevent future kidney stones, says Naim Maalouf, MD, an associate professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. At least 31 percent of people diagnosed with kidney stones develop another one within 10 years.
Kidney stones are made of minerals and other substances that can be found in the urine that can be identified with testing. Types of kidney stones include calcium stones , uric acid stones, struvite stones, and cystine stones.
Notably, a urinalysis test and urine culture can also tell doctors whether you also have an infection, which is a potentially life-threatening complication in combination with a kidney stone, says Seth K. Bechis, MD, an assistant professor of urology at UC San Diego Health in California. If urine is trapped behind an obstructing stone in the ureter, urine can become infected. This scenario can cause an infection of the kidney tissue or spread to the bloodstream.
Doctors may perform the following urine tests in kidney stone diagnosis:
A urinalysis with microscopy can also help doctors find evidence of bleeding or infection, says Dr. Maalouf.
From this urine sample, doctors can tell whether people are predisposed to stone formation. We call it a stone risk profile, says Maalouf.
Basic Metabolic Panel Blood Test
A basics metabolic panel is a blood test that allows a medical professional to understand just how well the body is functioning. This type of blood test checks for things like proper kidney functioning, high glucose levels, proper calcium levels and whether certain proteins are present in the body that can cause kidney or liver damage
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Imaging Tests For Kidney Infection
Its usually unnecessary to order imaging tests to diagnose a kidney infection, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. Cases in which an imaging test may be helpful include:
- Your symptoms dont improve with treatment
- Your infection recurs
- Your doctor suspects a structural abnormality in your urinary tract
If your doctor believes that imaging tests are necessary, the following options are available:
Computerized Tomography Scan This test takes a series of X-ray images from different angles, which a computer combines to create detailed images of tissues in your body.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging This test uses a magnetic field and radio waves to create images of organs and tissues.
Ultrasound This test uses sound waves to create images of tissues. But since sound doesnt travel well through certain tissues, like bone, ultrasound has limitations.
Intravenous Pyelogram This test involves injecting a dye into your arm, then taking X-ray images of your urinary tract to look for signs of swelling or other abnormalities in your kidneys and bladder.
Voiding Cystourethrogram This test is similar to an intravenous pyelogram, and involves taking X-ray images of your bladder when its full and while youre urinating.
The Incidence Of Kidney Disease Is Rising Screen Your Kidney Function With These Simple Blood And Urine Test
Written by Shraddha Rupavate | Updated : August 27, 2014 11:10 AM IST
Kidney problems do not develop overnight. Your kidney function naturally starts declining after you cross your 30s. And whether you will develop a kidney problem later in life is largely dependent on your lifestyle habits and diet. In most cases, kidney problems are caused as a result of a primary condition like diabetes, hypertension or high cholesterol levels. Because the symptoms of kidney diseases are not evident unless the kidneys are deteriorated to a great extent , you should regularly screen your kidney function . Here are some kidney function tests that can determine whether you are at a risk of kidney disease.
1. Blood pressure: Your kidneys perform the function of filtering blood under pressure to eliminate waste products through the urine. If your blood pressure is higher than normal it will increase the load on your kidneys and may lead to kidney disease. Alternatively, a person is suffering from kidney disease is also likely to have high blood pressure. Read more about the medication for high blood pressure.
2. Blood creatinine test: Creatinine is a waste product that is produced by your muscles. It enters the bloodstream and is filtered by the kidneys to get excreted through the urine. A blood creatinine test will measure the amount of creatinine in your blood. A higher level may indicate that the kidneys are not functioning properly.
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What Type Of Test Tells Me If I Have Ckd
Health organizations recommend at-risk patients, such as those with diabetes, high blood pressure, and/or who have a family history of kidney disease, should be screened at least annually for CKD.
It is recommended that at-risk patients have both of the following screening tests done:
Talk to your doctor about your CKD risk and ask for uACR and eGFR testing.
Prevention Of Kidney Disease
Medication and changes to lifestyle, along with an early referral to a kidney specialist , can prevent or delay kidney failure.
Heathy lifestyle choices to keep your kidneys functioning well include:
- Eat lots of fruit and vegetables including legumes and grain-based food such as bread, pasta, noodles and rice.
- Eat lean meat such as chicken and fish each week.
- Eat only small amounts of salty or fatty food.
- Drink plenty of water instead of other drinks. Minimise consumption of sugary soft drinks.
- Maintain a healthy weight.
- Stay fit. Do at least 30 minutes of physical activity that increases your heart rate on five or more days of the week, including walking, lawn mowing, bike riding, swimming or gentle aerobics.
- If you dont smoke, dont start. If you do, quit. Call the Quitline or ask your doctor for help with quitting.
- Limit your alcohol to no more than two small drinks per day if you are male, or one small drink per day if you are female.
- Have your blood pressure checked regularly.
- Do things that help you relax and reduce your stress levels.
A range of medication is available for high blood pressure. Different blood pressure medications work in different ways, so it is not unusual for more than one type to be prescribed. The dose may change according to your needs.
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Glomerular Filtration Rate Based On Creatinine Measurement
GFR is a calculation of how efficiently the kidneys are filtering wastes from the blood. A traditional GFR calculation requires an injection into the bloodstream of a substance that is later measured in a 24-hour urine collection. Recently, scientists found they could calculate GFR without an injection or urine collection. The new calculation requires only a measurement of the creatinine in a blood sample.
Creatinine is a waste product in the blood created by the normal breakdown of muscle cells during activity. Healthy kidneys take creatinine out of the blood and put it into the urine to leave the body. When kidneys are not working well, creatinine builds up in the blood.
In the lab, your blood will be tested to see how many milligrams of creatinine are in one deciliter of blood . Creatinine levels in the blood can vary, and each laboratory has its own normal range, usually 0.6 to 1.2 mg/dL. If your creatinine level is only slightly above this range, you probably will not feel sick, but the elevation is a sign that your kidneys are not working at full strength.
One formula for estimating kidney function equates a creatinine level of 1.7 mg/dL for most men and 1.4 mg/dL for most women to 50 percent of normal kidney function. But because creatinine values are so variable and can be affected by diet, a GFR calculation is more accurate for determining whether a person has reduced kidney function.
What Do The Kidneys Do
The kidneys have several jobs. One of the most important is helping your body eliminate toxins. The kidneys filter your blood and send waste out of your body in urine.
The kidneys are bean-shaped organs about the size of your fist. They sit under your ribcage, toward your back. Most people have two working kidneys, but people can live well as long as at least one is working correctly.
When the kidneys dont work effectively, waste products build up in your body. If this happens, you might feel sick. In the most serious situations, kidney failure can be life-threatening. However, many people can manage kidney failure with the right treatment.
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