Glomerulonephritis Cause Increase of Blood Urea Nitrogen

Chronic glomerulonephritis is simply referred to as chronic nephritis and it is characterized by proteinuria (bubble urine), hematuria (red-colored urine), edema and hypertension. It is a common kidney disease and young male has the highest incidence. It is hard to cure and most case will gradually develop into chronic renal failure.

Glomerulonephritis is in simple term the inflammation of the kidneys which will cause damages to the renal intrinsic cells and tissues and there will be a series of symptoms and signs. One of them is the increase of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) which is one of the major indicators of kidney function.

Urea nitrogen is the end product of protein metabolism and under normal circumstances it will be discharged through the kidneys. In case of nephritis, the normal renal functions are affected and urea nitrogen and other wastes in the blood can not be cleared outside and there will be increase of BUN, creatinine and uric acid. Just like serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen can be in the normal range in the early stage of renal damages. Only when the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) falls to less than 50% can there be obvious increase of BUN.

The normal range of blood urea nitrogen is 7-21mg/dl. BUN is often used with the combination of creatinine. Under normal circumstance, the ratio between BUN and serum creatinine is about 10. Many factors can cause the ratio to increase such as high-protein diet, high decomposition state, dehydration, renal ischemia, hypovolemia and some acute glomerulonephritis. While low-protein diet, liver diseases often decrease BUN and it is called azotemia.

Then how to control high blood urea nitrogen? Actually the increase of serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen is mainly caused by micro-circulation damages, glomerular sclerosis and basement membrane injuries. Therefore effective should aim at solve these problem so as to lower BUN from the root.