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Your kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of your fists. They are located near the middle of your back, just below the rib cage. Inside each kidney about a million tiny structures called nephons filter blood. They remove waste products and extra water, which become urine. The urine flows through tubes called ureters to your bladder, which stores the urine until you go to the bathroom.
Damage to the nephrons results in kidney disease. This damage may leave kidneys unable to remove wastes. Usually the damage occurs slowly over years. There are no obvious symptoms, so you don't know it is happening.
Many things can cause kidney disease. You are at risk if you have
Your doctor can run tests to find out if you have kidney disease. If your kidneys fail completely, a kidney transplant or dialysis can replace the work your kidneys normally do.
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
'''Polycystic kidney disease''' (PKD) is a progressive, genetic disorder of the kidneys. It occurs in humans and other animals. PKD is characterized by the presence of multiple cysts (polycystic) in both kidneys. The disease can also damage the liver, pancreas and rarely the heart and brain. The two major forms of polycystic kidney disease are distinguished by their patterns of inheritance. Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is generally a late onset disorder characterized by progressive cyst development and bilaterally enlarged kidneys with multiple cysts. Kidney manifestations in this disorder include renal function abnormalities, hypertension, renal pain, and renal insufficiency. Approximately 50% of patients with ADPKD have end-stage renal disease (ESRD) by age 60 years. ADPKD is, however, a systemic disease with cysts in other organs such as the liver, seminal vesicles, pancreas, and arachnoid membrane and non-cystic abnormalities such as intracranial aneurysms and dolichoectasias, dilatation of the aortic root and dissection of the thoracic aorta, mitral valve prolapse, and abdominal wall hernias. Initial human symptoms are hypertension, Fatigue (physical) and mild pain and urinary tract infections. The disease can lead to total loss of kidney function - chronic renal failure and end stage renal disease (ESRD). Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPCD)is much rarer that ADPRD and is often lethal. The signs and symptoms of the condition are usually apparent at birth or in early infancy.
No Salt, Lowest Sodium Cookbook - For heart patients and those with liver, kidney, and other chronic diseases requiring a no salt diet.
Calwood Nutritionals - Products for weight loss through appetite control and nutritional supplements for kidney disease patients.
NephRx Corp. - Biotechnology firm specializing in kidney disease and the development of the gastric growth factor. Features a lab located at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.
e-Kidneys.net - Information about the human kidney, anatomy, physiology, disease, acid-base balance, and thirst mechanisms.
Optimal Renal Care, LLC - Offers kidney disease and dialysis management services to health plans and their members. Located in New York, USA. [requires Flash plugin]
AVI Biopharma, Inc. - Develops and commercializes a vaccine against human chorionic gonadotropin secreting cancers, and synthetic antisense technology to inhibit translation in treating cardiovascular, kidney and viral diseases. Research and manufacturing facilities in Corvallis, Oregon. (Nasdaq: AVII)
Genzyme Corp. - Products targeted on rare inherited disorders, kidney disease, orthopaedics, transplant and immune disease, cancer, and diagnostic testing. Includes links to global subsidiaries, headquartered from Cambridge, Massachusetts (Nasdaq: GENZ)
Mission Pharmacal - Provides Citracal, calcium supplements for osteoporosis prevention and Urocit-K for kidney stone prevention and kidney stone disease. Also menopause relief, impotence cures, and erectile dysfunction.
Janssen-Ortho, Inc. - Canadian pharmaceutical company that develops drugs in the following therapeutic areas: mental wellness, anemia and fatigue, women's health, digestive disorders, kidney disease, infectious diseases and wound healing.
NCI: Kidney Cancer - Resource of the U.S. National Cancer Institute which touches on some of the less common manifestations of the disease.