The main risk factors for chronic kidney disease are:

  • Diabetes mellitus,
  • Hypertension (HBP),
  • Age over 50 years,
  • Cardiovascular diseases,
  • Structural kidney disease (kidney stones, prostate hypertrophy),
  • Chronic urinary tract infections (especially complicated ones)
  • Systemic, autoimmune diseases (e.g. systemic lupus erythematosus),
  • Positive family history (first-degree relatives with renal impairment or undergoing renal replacement therapy: haemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or kidney transplant),
  • An episode of acute renal failure in the history,
  • Haematuria (elimination of blood in the urine) or proteinuria (elimination of proteins in the urine) discovered by chance,
  • Single kidney (congenital, surgical),
  • Congenital malformations and hereditary diseases
  • Some medicines improperly dosed (administered in too high doses or for too long).

People with one or more of the above factors are at risk of developing chronic kidney disease. The Prevention Program must target, first of all, this category of population.

Diabetes and uncontrolled high blood pressure cause about 50% of all causes of CKD in adults. Therefore, good control over blood glucose and blood pressure levels can prevent or slow down the evolution of CKD.

One of the most common inherited diseases is Polycystic kidney disease, which involves the formation of cysts of varying sizes in the kidneys (some very large), which are bags of fluid that damage kidney tissue.

However, in some cases, the exact cause of kidney damage is unknown.

Most of the time, once the kidney damage has occurred, it is no longer reversible. However, what can be done, in case of detection of chronic kidney disease, is to slow down its evolution, being able to even avoid in many cases, the need for dialysis or kidney transplant.

There are 5 stages of CKD (from 1 to 5), and the classification in one stage or another is done by estimating how much of the kidney function is affected. Stage 5 is a significant decrease in kidney function (practically less than 15-10% of kidney function) and is the time when you need to work closely with your nephrologist, to prepare for the start of dialysis or kidney transplantation.