About Diagnosis for Kidney Diseases

Healthy kidneys remove wastes and excess fluid from the blood. Blood and urine tests show how well the kidneys are doing their job. Urine tests can show how quickly body wastes are being removed and whether the kidneys are leaking abnormal amounts of protein. Here are few tests to measure kidney function such as:

Urine Test called ACR: ACR stands for “albumin-to-creatinine ratio.” Urine will be tested for albumin. Albumin, is a type of protein that should be in blood. But if the protein is in urine, it means that the kidneys are not filtering the blood well enough. This can be a sign of early kidney disease. Three positive results over three months or more is a sign of kidney disease.

Blood Test to estimate GFR: The blood will be tested for a waste product called creatinine. Creatinine comes from muscle tissue. When the kidneys are damaged, they have trouble removing creatinine from the blood. Testing for creatinine is only the first step. The creatinine result is used in a math formula with the age, race, and sex to find out the glomerular filtration rate. Glomerular filtration rate number tells how well the kidneys are working.