In gouty, the uric acid in their blood is usually very high. This condition
is called hyperuricemia. If left untreated over time, it will lead to kidney
damage including two types.
First, hyperuricemia itself can cause inflammation and damage to kidneys,
which is called Gouty Nephropathy. In Gouty Nephropathy, the urate mainly
deposits in the renal tubule and renal interstitium, leading to atrophy of renal
tubular epithelial cells, damaging the function of renal tubule. There will be
edema, inflammation reaction in the renal interstitium. Untreated over time, the
kidneys will have fibrosis, which is called Interstitial Nephritis clinically.
The damage to glomeruli due to uric acid is milder than that to renal tubule and
renal interstitium. However, the uric acid still can lead inflammation to
glomerular capillaries and glomerular basilar membrane and even cause
glomerulosclerosis.
Gouty Nephropathy can cause kidney damage in a chronically
progressive way. The patients can maintain normal renal function for a long
time. With the progression of the disease, the patients will have edema,
declined urination at night, hypertension, and anemia and so on. Finally it will
develop into End Stage Renal Failure.
Second, the urate crystallizes separating out and even forms stone depositing
in the kidneys and ureter and other parts thus leading to secondary kidney
damage. Clinically, the gouty stones in the kidneys, ureter, bladder and urinary
tract are called urinary system gouty stone. There are two sources of urate:
urate deposits in the bladder or ureter, forming gouty stone. Occasionally, the
stone also can be found in the urethra. In addition, the stone in the kidneys
can enter urinary tract or bladder. For the patients with stone in ureter or
bladder, nearly all of them have Gouty Nephropathy or Kidney Stone in varying
degrees. If the diameter of stone exceeds that of ureter, it will lead to
obstruction thus causing nephredema or hydroureter. In mild case, it may not
cause clinical symptoms. However, if hydroureter is serious, the patients will
have back pain or swelling feeling in the kidney area and so on. Left untreated,
it will cause the renal function to decline gradually and finally progress into
Renal Failure.
Therefore, if you have a history of gouty, you should do blood test, urine
test and renal function test and so on regularly so as to find if they have
kidney damage in the first time and treat the disease as early as possible.