What causes Polycystic Kidney Disease?

Posted by editor2 on Monday 06 Apr 2009

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Polycystic kidney disease is also known as polycystic kidney syndrome is a cystic genetic disorder of the kidneys. It develops in humans and other animals. Polycystic kidney disease is distinguished by the presence of multiple cysts in both the kidneys.

The cysts are usually many and fluid filled cysts results in massive enlargement of the kidneys. The disease can also damage the pancreas, liver, and seldom, the brain and heart. The two major forms of polycystic kidney disease are characterized by their patterns of inheritance.

Causes

Patients with Polycystic kidney disease have multiple clusters of cysts form on the kidneys. The exact action that activates cyst formation is unknown. In the initial stages of the disease, the cysts develop the kidney to swell, interrupting kidney function and leading to kidney infections and chronic high blood pressure. The cysts may induce the kidneys to increase production of erythropoietin, a hormone that makes production of red blood cells. This leads to excessive red blood cells, rather than the anemia seen in chronic kidney disease.

Bleeding in a cyst can also cause flank pain. Kidney stones are normal in people with polycystic kidney disease. Polycystic kidney disease is extended through families, usually as an autosomal dominant trait. If one parent is the gene carrier, the children have a 50% chance of developing the disorder.

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease develops in both adults and children, but it is much more usual in adults, without showing up symptoms until middle age. The disorder may not be detected unless tests disclosing the disease are performed for other reasons.

Polycystic kidney disease is usually associated with the following conditions such as cysts in the liver, pancreas, and testes, diverticula of the colon and brain aneurysms. At least half of the people affected with polycystic kidney diseases have cysts on the liver. A personal or family history of polycystic kidney disease doubles your risk for the condition.

An autosomal recessive form of polycystic kidney disease also appears and exists in infancy or childhood. This type tends to be very severe and advances rapidly, ensuing in final stage kidney failure and normally causing death in infancy or childhood.