Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) affects as many as one in nine Americans and may be caused by diabetes, hypertension, glomerulonephritis, hereditary or urological diseases.
CKD is defined as kidney damage or a decrease in kidney function that persists over three months. The GFR (glomerular filtration rate) is a formula that uses age, race, gender and serum creatinine level to measure kidney function. Patients who have a GFR less than 60 ml/min/1.73 m2 for three months or more are diagnosed as having CKD. Kidney disease progresses as the number of nephrons (filtering units) diminish. However, it is possible to slow the progression of kidney disease at its various stages – with the goal, as often as possible, being to prevent the development of kidney failure requiring dialysis or kidney transplantation.