Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is when the kidneys are no longer able to clear toxins and waste products from the blood and perform their functions at full capacity. These kidney problems can occur in a progressive or continuous deterioration over time.
There are also cases of acute kidney injury (formerly known as acute kidney failure) which is a sudden loss of kidney function, usually within hours or days. However, this is quite rare.
Slower acting forms of response by the immune system occur because the population of cells that react against the invading substance or organism (allergen) needs to be built up from a small number of 'memory' cells that recognize the allergen.
Among the types of kidney disease that often occur are as follows:
Symptoms of chronic CKD vary and depend on the severity of the kidney damage. CKD is divided into five stages based on the level of kidney function or glomerular filtration rate. The glomerular filtration rate can be estimated from the blood creatinine level and is usually above 90 ml/min.
Most patients do not experience symptoms in the early stages. If kidney function is less than 30%, the following signs and symptoms may occur:
