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Nephritis refers to the inflammation of the kidney that can affect one or both of the kidneys.
If the kidney is inflamed, the functions of the kidneys are disrupted to very varying degrees depending on the type, cause and extent of inflammation. While acute stages may cause only a temporary dysfunction, chronic inflammation can permanently impair renal tissues, leading to kidney scarring and causing kidney failure. Both acute and chronic nephritis can be life-threatening if not poorly treated or controlled.
Back topNephritis can be caused by a number of factors, and these include auto-immune disorders, infections, and other diseases. Usually, people who suffer from acute nephritis get the aliment after they have experienced such common ailments as strep throat and other not as common conditions like rheumatic fever and scarlet fever.
Hereditary factors. Hereditary factors are sometimes seen as the cause for five percent of men who end up with end-stage renal disease.
Streptococcus bacteria is often the culprit for Nephritis that affect young children and even adults. The problem cause damage to filtering units of the kidneys, which then causes signs of the problem like proteinuria and hematuria to occur.
Some other conditions that can also be blamed for Nephritis include pneumonia, vasculitis or the inflammation of the blood vessels, mumps, measles and hepatitis. In certain cases abscesses can also result in this problem.
Other factors that can also result in Nephritis also include gout, yellow fever, typhoid fever, renal tuberculosis, Hermann's Syndrome, immune complex disease, urethral stricture, etc.
The other causes of Nephritis are painkillers, heavy metal effect, chronic transplant nephropathy, atherosclerotic kidney disorder and genetic disorders.
Back topHematuria (blood urine) which include two types: gross hematuria and microscopic hematuria
Foamy urine which also can be called proteinuria and bubbly urine
Elevated blood pressure
Swelling (edema) in eyelid, lower limb and even the whole body
These four are the basic symptoms of Nephritis in early stage and actually apart from these, when
Nephritis develops to end stage, patients usually have the following clinical manifestations.
Fatigue
Itchy skin
Anemia
Oliguria
Anuria
Learning about these symptoms help us have a generaldiagnosis about Nephritis.
Back topImaging tests that may be done mainly include:
Abdominal CT scan
Kidney ultrasound
Chest x-ray
Intravenous pyelogram(IVP)
Urinalysis and other urine tests also include:
Creatinine clearance test
Urine fortotal protein
Uric acid in the urine
Urine concentration test
Urine protein
Urine special gravity
Urine osmolality
Blood tests that are sometimes done also include：
Albumin
Anti-glomerular basement membrane antibody test
Anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCAs)anti-nuclear antibodies
BUN and serum creatinine test
Complement levels
Back topRoutine treatments for reducing symptoms and slowing down kidney progression mainly include the follows:
ACEI or ARB medicines to control blood pressure
Corticosteroids
Medications that suppress or quiet the immune system
A procedure called plasmapheresis may sometimes be applied for Nephritis caused by immune system. The part of fluid that contains antibodies is removed and then replaced with intravenous fluids. Removing circulating antibodies help reduce inflammation to renal tissues and relieve symptoms.
Anti-infection treatment is essential for acute Nephritis to slow down progression of the illness condition.
You may also need to limit salt, fluids, proteins and other substances.
Anti-coagulation treatment is important to reduce blood clotting and risks of stroke.
Treatment for repairing kidneys:
Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy—The treatment targets at repairing injured renal intrinsic cells and stopping kidney progression, allowing for remission of symptoms and improvement of kidney functions. Relapses over long periods deteriorate kidney condition in chronic Nephritis. In earlier stages the patients get better treatment effects by Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy.
Immunotherapy---Immunotherapy is combination of modern western treatment technique and essence of traditional Chinese Medicines. Western medicines are effective in slowing kidney inflammation, while joint of traditional Chinese herbal medicine accelerates blood circulation, removes fibrosis, regulates immunity and fixes damaged kidney cells. Immunotherapy is effective in treating various types of nephritis that is associated with autoimmunity or immune disorders. >
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