Etiology of High Blood Pressure in PKD

In most cases of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), high blood pressure is the first symptom. It is an immediate cause of heart failure and other complications among the patients. Sometimes, the patients with PKD may die of other diseases due to high blood pressure before it progresses into End Stage Renal Failure. Therefore, it is very important to manage high blood pressure in PKD.

High blood pressure is a sign of disease aggravation. For more than 50% of the patients with PKD, their blood pressure rises before the creatinine level elevates. PKD is featured by multiple cysts growing on kidneys. If left untreated, the cysts will enlarge continuously and oppress the healthy renal tissues and renal blood vessels causing renal local ischemia. After the receptor in kidneys senses this case, it can stimulate the kidneys to secrete more renin.
As a result, the angiotensin concentration rises and blood vessels contract. Afterwards, the blood pressure will increase. High blood pressure and renal function damage forms a vicious circle.

After the blood pressure rises, the small arteries through the body will contract and have spasm, which can cause the endangium to have hyaline change and damage the vascular wall. Afterwards, more cholesterol and other substances will deposit on the vascular wall and thicken the vascular wall and thin the lumen. As a result, the renal fibrosis is initiated and kidneys fail gradually until develops End Stage Renal Failure.

Then what can be done to control high blood pressure in PKD?

High blood pressure can be lowered by life style changes, regular exercise and diet. They should avoid smoking and alcohol and develop healthy daily habits. Increased salt intake can cause water retention in body thus increasing blood volume elevating blood pressure.

If there is a family history of PKD, other family members should keep systemic screening and keep the principle: early inspection and early treatment. In this way, they will be able to reduce the incidence of Renal Failure.

High Blood Pressure and High Creatinine

High blood pressure (hypertension) is designated as either essential (primary) hypertension or secondary hypertension and is defined as a consistently elevated blood pressure exceeding 140/90 mm Hg.

High blood pressure is called "the silent killer" because it often causes no symptoms for many years, even decades, until it finally damages certain critical organs.

Poorly controlled high blood pressure ultimately can cause damage to blood vessels in the eye, thickening of the heart muscle and heart attacks, hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis),hypertensive nephropathy, kidney failure, and strokes.

How to lower high creatinine effectively?

Serum creatinine is an effective measure for kidney functions. In the treatment of kidney disease, the patients are very concerned as to how to lower their elevated creatinine and stop further damage on their kidneys. The complexity of kidney diseases means that a comprehensive treatment system is required so as to control the illness condition. The people need to know the severity of high creatinine and treat their disease positively.

Work with your doctor to develop a personalized diet that is low in protein. The amount of protein you eat on this diet depends on how much you weigh, so do not attempt this diet on your own. You will also need to test frequently to be sure that the creatinine levels in your urine are increasing and the levels in your blood are decreasing. This indicates that the creatinine is being excreted properly. Doctors will prescribe Lasix, a strong diuretic, to promote urination. This is another reason a person with high creatinine levels must drink plenty of water.

We need to know why creatinine increases. Creatinine as a wasteful product should normally be discharged out of the body by the kidneys. The medicines played good role in reducing the excessive toxins such as creatinine, urea nitrogen, uric acid, etc. However, this will not help for improving or injuring the lesioned renal tissues. In long-term developing course, with scarring on the kidneys worsening and kidney condition deteriorating, serum creatinine keeps on rising and efficacy of the medicines will get reduced. Such risk factors as inflammations, cold, infections can cause rapid deterioration of kidney function and worsen the illness condition.

High Blood Pressure and Kidney Disease

How does high blood pressure hurt the kidneys?

High blood pressure makes the heart work harder and, over time, can damage blood vessels throughout the body. If the blood vessels in the kidneys are damaged, they may stop removing wastes and extra fluid from the body. The extra fluid in the blood vessels may then raise blood pressure even more. It's a dangerous cycle.

High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of kidney failure, also called end-stage renal disease (ESRD). People with kidney failure must either receive a kidney transplant or have regular blood-cleansing treatments called dialysis. Every year, high blood pressure causes more than 25,000 new cases of kidney failure.

How can blood pressure be controlled?

People with prehypertension or high blood pressure should :

• maintain their weight at a level close to normal.
• eat fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, and low-fat dairy foods.
• limit their daily salt, or sodium, intake to 2,000 milligrams. They should limit frozen foods and trips to fast food restaurants. They should read nutritionlabels on packaged foods to learn how much sodium is in one serving. Keeping a sodium diary can help monitor sodium intake.
• get plenty of exercise—at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, such aswalking, cycling, or swimming, most days of the week.
• avoid consuming too much alcohol. Men should have no more than two drinks—two 12-ounce servings of beer or two 5-ounce servings of wine or two 1.5-ounce servings of hard liquor—a day. Women should have no more than a single serving a day because differences in the way foods are broken down in the body make women more sensitive to the effects of alcohol.

http://www.kidneyabc.com/hypertensive-nephropathy/

High Blood Pressure (Hypertensive Nephropathy)

Hypertension is a condition when your blood pressure is recorded consistently at the level of 140/90 mmHg or higher. Most of the time, hypertension does not show any symptoms. The problem is that Hypertension is not just a cause of kidney disease, but it's also a result of damage created by the kidney disease. High blood pressure makes your heart work harder and damages your blood vessels. As the blood vessels in your heart become damaged, they lose their effectiveness in screening the wastes from your body. This increases the fluids in your body and increases your blood pressure even more.

The damage of the blood vessels in your kidneys due to high blood pressure is what is known as Hypertensive Nephropathy.

What are the symptoms of Hypertensive Nephropathy?

If high blood pressure runs in your family, the presence of the disease seems to increase chances of developing kidney disease. Symptoms of kidney disease due to high blood pressure include:

• A need to urinate more often, especially at night
• Decrease in amount of urine or difficulty urinating
• Edema (fluid retention), especially in the lower legs

What are the Types of Hypertensive Nephropathy?

There are 2 types of hypertensive nephropathy, namely benign nephrosclerosis and malignant nephrosclerosis. Benign nephrosclerosis is most present in people over 60 years old while the rare malignant nephrosclerosis occurs only in 1 to 5 percent of people with hypertension.

Malignant nephrosclerosis only occurs in a case of hypertension with diastolic blood pressure exceeding 130mm Hg. This is present in patients that already have an existing kidney disease that developed into malignant hypertension.

How is Hypertensive Nephropathy prevented?

• To prevent hypertension-related kidney damage:
• Keep your blood pressure below 130/80
• Have your blood pressure checked regularly
• Maintain a proper diet
• Take any medications prescribed by your doctor