Chronic renal failure overview
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Aarti Narayan, M.B.B.S [2]
Overview
Chronic renal failure (CRF), also known as chronic kidney failure (CKF) or chronic kidney disease (CKD), or chronic renal insufficiency (CRI) is a slowly progressive loss of renal function over a period of months or years defined as an abnormally low glomerular filtration rate. The glomerular filtration rate is usually determined indirectly by the creatinine level in blood serum.
CRF that leads to severe illness and requires some form of renal replacement therapy (such as dialysis) is called end-stage renal disease (ESRD).
Pathophysiology
CRF begins with damage to the nephrons, the filtering units of the kidneys, due to diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, immune complex deposition, toxin exposure, and inflammation. To compensate for the decreased glomerular filtration rate by the damaged nephrons, healthy nephrons hypertrophy and hyperfiltration due to signals from the body.