Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) is a type of genetic kidney disease, and most
of it manifests as bilateral kidneys PKD. The main manifestation of this disease
is that the kidney is full of various cysts, big or small, inside or outside of
the kidney. With the enlargement of these cysts, they will lead to the swollen
of kidney and compress the renal parenchyma, which will lead to the decline and
further aggravation of renal function and until the occurrence of uremia.
According to the researches of western countries, there is one PKD patient in
500-1000 persons and 5-10 percent of end stage of uremia is caused by PKD. So
PKD is a kind of disease of high-morbidity and high-risk. Then what we can do to
prevent it and treat it? Now, the most important thing is to learn its symptoms
in order to find it early and adopt treatment in time. The main symptoms of PKD
include the following five points:
First, anemia: for most PKD patients, the development of anemia is a slow
process from slight to serious level. And anemia usually accompanied with the
symptom of enuresis nocturna. Anemia usually is related to the damage of renal
function and is caused by the decrease of erythrogenin excreted by kidney.
Second, hypertension: it is one of the most common symptoms of PKD and 50-60
percent of PKD patients have the symptom of hypertension. Hypertension usually
occurs before the decline of renal function and often is accompanied with swirl
and headache. This symptom is related to the hyperfunction of renin–angiotensin
system.
Third, abdominal tumor: with the enlargement of cysts, we can tough the
tumors of different sizes and the tumors will move with the breath. When they
are accompanied with infections, there is tenderness. About 50-80 percent of
patients' palpable abdominal tumors are bilateral, and 15-30 percent of
patients' are unilateral.
Forth, abnormal urine: the abnormal urine includes hematuria and proteinuria,
and they are the early symptom. Proteinuria is the most common symptom, almost
all the PKD patients have the symptom of proteinuria, it is related to the
barrier function of glomerulus. Hematuria is the main reason, by which patients
found they have PKD. The occurrence of hematuria is mainly due to the rupture of
cysts or the haemorrhagia of kidney caused by the enlargement of cysts and the
compressing of them. In most case, hematuria expresses as interval and anodynia
gross hematuria, and the degree is slight. In addition, during the early stage,
there are the slight symptoms of diuresis, micturition and urgent urination and
the symptom of enuresis nocturna, these are related to the decline of renal
concentration function.
Fifth, focal discomfort and dull pain of back or abdomen: these symptom
usually occur at the early stage of PKD. And the main expression is the
constriction of the back and sometimes it is the serious pain. It may be
continuous or interval. Sometimes, it is pain of abdomen and it emits from
abdomen to the back, breast, stomach or groin. And the pain may aggravate with
the exercise, running and long-time sitting and so on. The mechanism of pain is
that the increase of renal capsular tension and compression to surrounding
organs and tissues caused by the enlargement of kidney.
In daily life, patients should pay attention to the five symptoms of PKD in
order to find whether they have these signals themselves. On by this can they
find and prevent the attack of this disease in time. Once you have these
symptoms, you'd better adopt treatment timely and block the aggravation of this
disease at the beginning.