What are the Symptoms of Chronic Kidney Failure

Chronic kidney failure is the end stage of various chronic kidney disease and the main clinical symptoms are loss of appetite, metabolic acidosis, acute heart failure, metabolic disorders.

Here I will mainly take about what kind of metabolic disorders and imbalances that chronic kidney failure patients may experience and they may also serve as signs for proper and timely treatments.

Imbalance of acid-base and metabolic disorders of various electrolytes are very common in chronic kidney failure and metabolic acidosis, disorders of water and electrolyte are the most common ones.

1. Metabolic acidosis. In kidney failure, the metabolic wastes like phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid and other acids can not be discharged due to failed kidney function and in serious conditions will cause loss of appetite, vomiting, fatigue and deep breathing, etc.

2. Metabolic disorder of water and sodium. It mainly manifests as retention of water and sodium and patients can have various degrees’ subcutaneous edema or effusion in body cavities, cerebral edema, high blood pressure, left cardiac dysfunction, etc.

3. Metabolic disorder of proteins. The general symptoms of metabolic disorder of proteins are accumulation of protein metabolisms (azotemia), decrease of serum albumin, essential amino acid in plasma and tissues. The disorder is mainly due to increase protein metabolism, decreased kidney functions, etc. As a result, there will be increase level of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen and other protein-related wastes and toxins.

4. Metabolic disorders of sugar, fat and vitamins. Metabolic disorder of sugar manifests as impaired glucose tolerance and low blood sugar; hyperlipidemia is common and most patients have hypertriglyceridemia and a few may have hypercholesterolemia. Vitamin metabolic disorder is quite common such as increase of vitamin A and shortage of vitamin B6 and folic acid.

Besides, patients may have metabolic disorders of many other electrolytes such as potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, etc. What is more, there will be disorders and imbalances in many other systems and organs such as cardiovascular system, respiratory system, blood system, nervous system as well as gastrointestinal tract and bones, etc. Among them, the cardiovascular lesion is one of the major complications and most common cause of death for chronic kidney failure.