Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Uremia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
|---|---|
| Urea | |
| ICD-10 | R39.2 |
| ICD-9 | 585-586, 788.9 |
| DiseasesDB | 26060 |
| eMedicine | med/2341 |
| MeSH | D014511 |
Uremia is a term used to loosely describe the illness accompanying kidney failure. In kidney failure, urea and other waste products, which are normally excreted into the urine, are retained in the blood. Early symptoms include anorexia and lethargy, and late symptoms can include decreased mental acuity and coma. It is usually diagnosed in kidney dialysis patients when the glomerular filtration rate, a measure of kidney function, is below 50% of normal.[1]
Azotemia is another word that refers to high levels of urea, but is used primarily when the abnormality can be measured chemically but is not yet so severe as to produce symptoms. Uremia can also result in fibrinous pericarditis. There are many dysfunctions caused by uremia affecting many systems of the body, such as blood (lower levels of erythropoietin), Sex (lower levels of testosterone/oestrogen) and bones (osteoperosis and metastatic calcifications).
Besides renal failure, the level of urea in the blood can also be increased by:
- increased production of urea in the liver, due to:
- high protein diet
- increased protein breakdown (surgery, infection, trauma, cancer)
- gastrointestinal bleeding
- drugs (e.g. tetracyclines and corticosteroids)
- decreased elimination of urea, due to:
- decreased blood flow through kidney (e.g. hypotension, cardiac failure)
- urinary outflow obstruction
- dehydration
 |
This medical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |