Home detection kit for kidney diseases unveiled

Kidney diseases can now be detected early, with the introduction of home detection kits in Chennai on Wednesday at an event was organised ahead of the world kidney day on Thursday, the theme for this year being, 'protect your kidneys, save your heart.'

Jay Ramakrishnan, vice president, Tatat Consultancy Services, and film director Jayendra were present for the event that was organised by the MIOT Hospital.

Dr Rajan Ravichandran, nephrologist and director, MIOT Institute of Nephrology, said early detection of kidney diseases has been the main problem and patients end up reaching the stage of dialysis and transplant. This kit will allow early detection. 

According to the National Kidney Foundation of India, 100 persons in every one million suffered from kidney diseases and around 90,000 kidney transplants were required in the country every year.
 
While only 22.5 per cent of patients requiring dialysis received treatment, only 2.5 per cent of patients with kidney failure received transplant.

There are less than a thousand nephrologists in the country and health insurance does not cover outpatient dialysis treatment, which was a costly affair. He pointed out that a wake up call was required for patients to fight diseases before it hit them. Proper diet management, control of blood pressure level and regular urine investigations should be followed to keep kidney problems away, he said.

One was more susceptible to contracting a kidney disease if there was a family history of diabetic kidney disease, hypertension, blood pressure and blood sugar.