Why chronic kidney disease needs regular follow-up?

  Chronic kidney disease is defined as a variety of kidney damage or a glomerular filtration rate below 60 ml/min/1.73 m2, as long as the disease lasts more than three months. Chronic kidney disease is a group of diseases that progresses slowly but can also worsen acutely when risk factors are present and progress to uremia in a short period of time. Chronic kidney disease is a group of diseases whose progression can be slowed down with proper treatment, but cannot be cured. Patients with chronic kidney disease need long-term follow-up to clarify whether there is aggravation or deterioration of the disease, and if there is rapid deterioration of the disease in a short period of time, they need to be hospitalized in order to find the factors that aggravate the disease and correct them to control the development of the disease.  Many patients with chronic kidney disease may feel little difference between the effect of treatment and no treatment after a period of treatment.  Therefore, they stop the treatment and do not go to the hospital for follow-up. In fact, for all patients with chronic kidney disease, regardless of the effect of treatment, they should be checked regularly. The main reason why patients stop the review is because they wrongly believe that the effect of treatment is the same as that of no treatment (the change of laboratory index is not significant, such as Mr. Zhu mentioned above, who stopped the review because the creatinine did not drop and the urine protein did not decrease). In fact, for most patients with chronic kidney disease and chronic renal insufficiency, if creatinine is not significantly increased, especially if glomerular filtration rate is reduced by less than 4 ml/min per year by formula method, the treatment effect should be regarded as fair. [Glomerular filtration rate (ml/min) = (140 – age) x weight x 88.4/72 x creatinine value, if female then x 0.85. where age is weeks, weight is kg, creatinine value is umol/L. If creatinine value is mg/L, remove 88.4 from the denominator]. Of course a significant decrease in creatinine with treatment would be better.  Their patients fail to recognize that regular review can lead to early detection of complications of chronic kidney disease, such as hypertension, anemia and disorders of calcium and phosphorus metabolism. By controlling these complications can be to make the kidney function of patients with chronic kidney disease protected and reduce the cardiovascular damage.  Patients may not realize that their chronic kidney disease can deteriorate so fast. In fact, through a large number of investigations, it has been found that patients may be relatively stable for a considerable period of time, but will at some point, due to the disease itself or improper medication, or due to the emergence of comorbidities, etc., make the kidney function deteriorate dramatically, and it is possible that this change in condition may not be detected if not reviewed regularly.  For patients with asymptomatic hematuria (without hypertension and proteinuria, and with normal renal function) who have not undergone renal puncture or who have undergone renal puncture but with mild lesions, regular review of urinary routine, renal function, blood pressure and ultrasound is also required.  This is because: 1. The type of kidney pathology in patients with chronic nephritis may change. If patients have only mild hematuria at the beginning of the disease, they may later develop proteinuria, hypertension, or even renal insufficiency. At this time, it is necessary to seek immediate medical attention, early active examination and early treatment, when the treatment plan is certainly different from when only hematuria is present. This is also true for patients with simple proteinuria or intermittent proteinuria.  2.Some patients who start with mild disease may be early manifestations of other diseases (such as autoimmune diseases, hematological diseases, etc.), and if there are changes in these diseases, it is also beneficial for early detection and correct treatment.  3.Some hematuria such as rapid aggravation, or the appearance of blood clots, blood filaments. It is necessary to consider the possibility of urological diseases, especially the possibility of urological tumors in patients over 40 years old. In summary, all patients with chronic kidney disease, regardless of their condition, should be reviewed regularly to keep abreast of changes in their condition and for proper treatment. For most chronic kidney diseases, the earlier treatment begins, the better.  Recommendation: Patients who clearly have kidney damage should have regular follow-up to keep abreast of changes in their condition.