Atrophied Kidney and CKD Stages

Atrophied kidney means the kidneys are comparatively smaller than that of other people on the basis of same age, gender, height and body weight. It can be congenital or acquired. In medical field, the most common cause of atrophied kidney is Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) which is a progressive kidney problem and atrophied kidney usually occurs when CKD develops to kidney failure stage.

For people with CKD, atrophied kidney can be their symptom, also can be the consequence of progressive loss of kidney function. Kidney is an important internal organ with function of regulating blood pressure, producing urine, keeping balance of water and electrolyte, discharging wastes and preserving nutrition. All these functions are essential for us to live a normal and healthy life and once they are impaired due to kidney damages, kidney function decreases and various symptoms appear. For instance, when renal filtration membrane is damaged seriously, kidney fails to reserve protein, as a result of which, protein leak into urine and therefore causing proteinuria.

In cases of CKD, atrophied kidney occurs when large amounts of renal tissues become necrotic. Healthy renal tissues are the precondition for our kidney function normally. When they are damaged and become necrotic, kidney function decreases and meanwhile, atrophied kidney occurs. Therefore, the severity of CKD is usually proportional to the severity of atrophied kidney.

B ultrasound can help CKD patients to diagnose atrophied kidney and normally, the reference value of kidney size through B ultrasound examination is 7.9cm to 11.5cm long, 5.5cm to 7cm wide and 4cm to 5cm thick. If the test reports show smaller kidney size, CKD patients should consider whether they are suffering atrophied kidney.

Kidney size is related with our body weight, height, gender and age, so the side of kidney differs from one to one. But no matter how, kidney size should be in the normal range. And once atrophied kidney occurs, patients should be alert and attach much more importance to it. For people with CKD, as they are more likely to suffer from atrophied kidney, so doing kidney examination regularly is very necessary.