Polycystic Kidney Disease

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II. Background Information
Polycystic kidney disease is a genetic disease that could be passed from generation to generation.. Many cysts forming the kidneys, causing them to become enlarged. Round cysts contain of water-like fluid and they are noncancerous, could grow inside the liver and spread in other parts of the body.
Before getting into more close details about the PDK, it is important to understand what function kidney does and why they are an essential organs in human’s body. The kidneys are two organs, each about the size of a fist, located in the upper part of a person's abdomen, toward the back. Kidneys function is to filter wastes and extra fluid from the blood to form urine. Moreover, they regulate amounts of other vital substances in the body.
Growing cysts can profoundly enlarge the kidneys thus changing their normal shape, structure and prevent them from proper working. If the disease is not being noticed in a right time the cysts might spread and this might lead to reduced kidney function and later, kidney failure.
Richard Bright, a British physician and medical researcher was the first to discover this disease. He also participated in studying other kidney diseases. Bright was born on September 28th, 1789 in Bristol. He grew up in a wealthy family. He worked together with two, most prominent figures of British medicine at that time, Thomas Hodgkin and Thomas Addison and that lead to many different discoveries about kidney related diseases (1820). They published numerous works and research papers that later lead to the discovery of the treatments of the diseases. All those researches provided him with enough information to come up with the symptoms of polycystic kidney disease. This disease was also named...

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...for Patients and their Families
A good local resources for people that are affected by this disease would be The Polyclinic Madison Center, Harborview Medical Renal Clinic, Swedish Organ Transplant Clinic, Minor & James Medical Group, Northwest Kidney Centers, Group Health Nephrology Assocs, VA Puget Sound Healthcare Renal, West Seattle Kidney Center, Medical Specialties Clinic , University of Washington Med, and many other institutions located in Seattle that could provide you with more information, advices, support about the disease.
There are thousands of institutions worldwide that could support you and provide you with information including PDK Foundation, National Kidney Foundation, National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse. There are also many books about this disease that include other people experiences and their advices. Also:

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