Chronic kidney disease (CKD), also known as chronic renal disease, is progressive loss in kidney function over a period of months or years. The symptoms of worsening kidney function are not specific, and might include feeling generally unwell and experiencing a reduced appetite. Often, chronic kidney disease is diagnosed as a result of screening of people known to be at risk of kidney problems, such as those with high blood pressure or diabetes and those with a blood relative with CKD. This disease may also be identified when it leads to one of its recognized complications, such as cardiovascular disease, anemia, pericarditis or renal osteodystrophy (the latter included in the novel term CKD-MBD). CKD is a long-term form of kidney disease; thus, it is differentiated from acute kidney disease (acute kidney injury) in that the reduction in kidney function must be present for over 3 months. CKD is an internationally recognized public health problem affecting 5–10% of the world population.

Kidney disease, also known as nephropathy or renal disease, is damage to or disease of a kidney. Nephritis is inflammatory kidney disease. Nephrosis is noninflammatory nephropathy. Kidney disease usually causes kidney failure (renal failure) to more or less degree, with the amount depending on the type of disease. In precise usage, disease denotes the structural and etiologic disease entity whereas failure denotes the dysfunction (lack of working well, that is, impaired renal function); but in common usage these meanings overlap; for example, the terms chronic kidney disease and chronic renal failure are usually considered synonymous. Acute kidney disease has often been called acute renal failure, although nephrologists now often tend to call it acute kidney injury.

Causes

Causes of kidney disease include deposition of the IgA antibodies in the glomerulus, administration of analgesics, xanthine oxidase deficiency, toxicity of chemotherapy agents, and long-term exposure to lead or its salts. Chronic conditions that can produce nephropathy include systemic lupus erythematosus, diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure (hypertension), which lead to diabetic nephropathy and hypertensive nephropathy, respectively.