Most of us are born with two kidneys that we hope will serve us all our lives.
Says Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia internal medicine clinical lecturer Prof Emeritus Datin Dr Norella Kong: “Before, no one talked about anything other than the first 10 causes of mortality.“Dialysis is a major means of treatment, which is very expensive, and once a patient is on it, he or she is being kept alive by a machine for umpteen years.Kidney or renal function is measured by the glomerular filtration rate and CKD is staged accordingly.
Having been in the field for over 50 years, she says CKD was initially a problem among the aged, but with greater awareness over the years, it’s now being picked up at a younger age. “But if you leave school after Form Five or Six, then you are not screened until you get to the employment phase or are obtaining health insurance,” says Prof Emeritus Kong.“Back then, if there was a small trace of protein in the urine, the medical officers will generally pass you by because they didn’t realise what may happen 20 years down the road in females when they get pregnant.
The good news for many women is that pregnancy offers an opportunity for diagnosis of kidney disease through the standard antenatal tests. Pre-eclampsia is a complication of pregnancy characterised by high blood pressure and signs of damage to another organ system, most often the liver and kidneys, and can occur in women whose blood pressure was previously normal.Pre-eclampsia increases the probability of hypertension and CKD in later years.