Uremia

Uremia is the condition of having high levels of urea in the blood. Urea is one of the primary components of urine. It can be defined as an excess of amino acid and protein metabolism end products, such as urea and creatinine, in the blood that would be normally excreted in the urine. Uremic syndrome can be defined as the terminal clinical manifestation of kidney failure (also called renal failure). It is the signs, symptoms and results from laboratory tests which result from inadequate excretory, regulatory and endocrine function of the kidneys. Both uremia and uremic syndrome have been used interchangeably to denote a very high plasma urea concentration that is the result of renal failure. The former denotation will be used for the rest of the article. Uremia is the condition of having high levels of urea in the blood. Urea is one of the primary components of urine. It can be defined as an excess of amino acid and protein metabolism end products, such as urea and creatinine, in the blood that would be normally excreted in the urine. Uremic syndrome can be defined as the terminal clinical manifestation of kidney failure (also called renal failure). It is the signs, symptoms and results from laboratory tests which result from inadequate excretory, regulatory and endocrine function of the kidneys. Both uremia and uremic syndrome have been used interchangeably to denote a very high plasma urea concentration that is the result of renal failure. The former denotation will be used for the rest of the article. Azotemia is another word that refers to high levels of urea and is used primarily when the abnormality can be measured chemically but is not yet so severe as to produce symptoms. Uremia describes the pathological and symptomatic manifestations of severe azotemia. There is no specific time for the onset of uremia for people with progressive loss of kidney function. People with kidney function below 50% (i.e. a glomerular filtration rate between 50 and 60 mL) and over 30 years of age may have uremia to a degree. This means an estimated 8 million people in the United States with a GFR of less than 60 mL have uremic symptoms. The symptoms, such as fatigue, can be very vague, making the diagnosis of impaired kidney function difficult. Treatment is to perform dialysis or a renal transplant. Classical signs of uremia are: progressive weakness and easy fatigue, loss of appetite due to nausea and vomiting, muscle atrophy, tremors, abnormal mental function, frequent shallow respiration and metabolic acidosis. Without intervention via dialysis or kidney transplant, uremia due to renal failure will progress and cause stupor, coma and death. Because uremia is mostly a consequence of kidney failure, its signs and symptoms often occur concomitantly with other signs and symptoms of kidney failure. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) measures the amount of plasma being filtered through the kidneys. As the GFR decreases, the prognosis worsens. Some of the effects can be reversed with dialysis. People on dialysis acquire what is known as 'residual syndrome'. Residual syndrome is a non-life-threatening disease which is displayed as toxic effects causing many of the same signs and symptoms that uremia displays. There are several hypotheses why residual syndrome is present. They are: the accumulation of large molecular weight solutes that are poorly dialyzed (e.g. β2-Microglobulin); the accumulation of protein-bound small molecular weight solutes that are poorly dialyzed (e.g. p-cresyl sulfate and indoxyl sulfate); the accumulation of dialyzable solutes that are incompletely removed (e.g. sequestered solutes like phosphate in cells or insufficient elimination of other more toxic solutes); indirect phenomena such as carbamylation of proteins, tissue calcification, or a toxic effect of hormone imbalance (e.g. parathyroid hormone) and; the toxic effects of dialysis itself (e.g. removal of unknown important vitamins or minerals). Dialysis increases life span but patients may have more limited function. They gain physical limitations which include impairment of balance, walking speed and sensory functions. They also retain cognitive impairments such as impairment in attention, memory and performance of higher-order tasks. Patients have been maintained longer than three decades on dialysis, but average mortality rates and hospitalizations are high. Also, patient rehabilitation and quality of life is poor.