Kidney Polycystic Disease: Symptoms, Causes and Treatment

What is Renal Polycystic Disease?

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a genetic disorder that causes many fluid-filled cysts to grow in your kidneys.

Unlike simple, usually harmless renal cysts, which can form in the kidneys later in life, in the polycystic kidneys the cysts can change the shape of the kidney, even making it much larger.

Excess kidneys cysts is a form of chronic kidney disease (CKD) that reduces kidney function and can cause kidney failure.

Polycystic kidney disease can also cause other complications or problems, such as high blood pressure, cysts in the liver, and problems with the blood vessels in the brain and heart.

Types of renal polycystic disease (RPE)

  • Autosomal dominant EPR, which is usually diagnosed in adulthood.
  • Autosomal recessive RPE, which can be diagnosed in the womb or soon after a baby is born.

How common is this excess renal cysts?

EPR is one of the most common genetic disorders. It affects approximately 500,000 people in the United States.

Who is more likely to have EPR?

Polycystic kidney disease affects people of all ages, races and ethnicities throughout the world. Kidney cyst disorder occurs equally in women and men.

Causes

A genetic mutation or defect causes polycystic kidney disease. In most cases of PKD, a child obtained the genetic mutation of a parent.

In a small number of cases of polycystic kidney disease, the gene mutation developed on its own, without either parent carrying a copy of the mutated gene. This type of mutation is called “spontaneous”.

Symptoms

The signs and symptoms of polycystic kidney disease are pain, high blood pressure and kidney failure. In many cases PKD does not cause signs or symptoms until your kidney cysts are one inch or more in size.

The first signs of polycystic kidney disease in the uterus are larger than normal kidneys and a baby of less than average size, a condition called growth failure.

Can I prevent polycystic kidney disease?

Researchers have not yet found a way to prevent polycystic kidney disease. However, you may be able to delay the problems of RPE caused by high blood pressure, such as kidney damage.

What can I do to stop kidney cysts?

The sooner you know that you or your child has a kidney cyst, the sooner you can prevent the condition from getting worse. Taking the test if you or your child is at risk of having an EPR can help you take the necessary steps.

You can also take steps to help delay or prevent kidney failure. Healthy lifestyle practices, such as being active, reducing stress and quitting can help.

Make lifestyle changes

Stay active for 30 minutes or more most days. Regular physical activity can help you reduce stress, control your weight and control your blood pressure.

If you are not active now, ask your health care provider how much and what type of physical activity is right for you.

If you play contact sports, such as football or karate, a health care provider must do a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test to see if these sports are safe for you.

The trauma to your body, especially the back and sides, can cause the rupture of the renal cysts.

Being overweight makes your kidneys work harder. Losing weight helps protect your kidneys.

Try to sleep from 7 to 8 hours each night. Getting enough sleep is important for your overall physical and mental health and can help you control your blood pressure and blood sugar.

Reduce stress Long-term stress can raise your blood pressure and even cause depression. For example, doing enough physical activity and sleep helps reduce it.

Quit smoking since the cigarette can raise your blood pressure and worsen your kidney damage.

Also quitting smoking can help you achieve your blood pressure goals, which is good for your kidneys and can reduce your chances of having a heart attack or stroke.

It is even more important for people with polycystic kidney disease who have aneurysms. An aneurysm is a lump in the wall of a blood vessel.

Change what you eat and drink so as not to have polycystic kidneys

You may need to change what you eat and drink to help control your blood pressure and protect your kidneys.

People with any type of kidney disease, including kidney disease, should talk to a dietitian about what foods and drinks to include in their healthy eating plan and which ones may be harmful.

Staying hydrated by drinking the correct amount of fluid can help delay the progression of polycystic kidney disease to kidney failure.

Take medication for blood pressure

If changes in lifestyle and diet do not help control your blood pressure, a doctor may prescribe one or more medications for that purpose.

Two types of blood pressure medications, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) can delay polycystic kidney disease and delay kidney failure.