Kidney Disease Essay

Kidney disease is one of the most common and complicated diseases which requires very costly treatment. Approximately 2.6 million people in Canada are living with kidney disease or at risk of developing it. According to the kidney foundation report, about 3,500 patients are waiting for a kidney transplant and 40 thousand patients are living on dialysis each year. Moreover, approximately 16 people are informed that their kidneys have failed each day. In 2009, only the cost for kidney transplantation of over 15 thousand Canadians was approximately 435 million. Kidney disease also affects up to 18% of hospitalized patients, causing significant mortality and morbidity. Therefore several research studies have been conducted already to detect, manage

The fundamental challenge in any EHR-based tool is to understand the nature of the disease, the measurement criteria, the precursors and consequences, and the features that precisely classify the disease. So any scientific research in EHR usually start with the most common epidemiological questions (Pranjul et al. 2015): What is the natural history of the disease? How to measure the severity of the disease? What are the symptoms of the disease? How are the risk factors related to the disease? How many new cases are added to the system each year? How this disease is related to other diseases?

The next three sections in this chapter provide an overview of kidney function, types of kidney disease, measurement methods of kidney function and the risk factors associated with different types of kidney diseases.

2.1. Overview of the Kidney

The treatment plan depends on the severity or stages of AKI (e.g., a critical patient having stage 5 AKI may need dialysis) (Bagshaw et al. 2007).

2.3.2. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

Chronic kidney disease refers to decline in kidney function progressively and slowly over months and years due to kidney damage or infection. It is a long-lasting state when the kidneys do not work properly. CKD can be mild or severe and may lead to end-stage renal disease, which is called ESRD. Most of the times, CKD develops very slowly and does not show any symptoms until it reaches a severe stage. However, it is possible to detect CKD at an earlier stage from some urine and blood tests. The probability of developing ESRD is subtle if it is diagnosed early (Echouffo-Tcheugui & Kengne 2012).

2.4. Risk factors affecting kidney