Chronic Kidney Disease: Clinical Prevention and Basic Theory

Author: Bi Zengqi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-05-01
Features: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common disease that threatens people's health and lives. In recent years, due to the rise in the incidence of secondary kidney diseases such as type 2 diabetes and elderly kidney disease, the incidence of CKD has also been on the rise. Taking the United States as an example in recent years, it has increased by approximately 10% annually. In 1995, the number of late-stage dialysis patients in the country was 304,000, with annual treatment costs of around $13 billion. By 1998, the cost had risen to $14.45 billion. China has a larger population than the United States, so by extrapolation, the severity of the problem can be imagined. Before the 1970s, human understanding of this disease was mainly limited to clinical observations and pathological descriptions. In terms of treatment, there was little that could be done, and the approach was often symptomatic treatment. When the disease progressed to end-stage renal failure, renal replacement therapy was performed. From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, humans gradually recognized the importance of early and middle-stage prevention and treatment of this disease, and it was proven that some measures could prevent its progressive deterioration. As a result, the prevention and treatment of CKD quickly became a prominent issue in kidney disease research. Over the past two decades, China's kidney disease research community has made significant progress in both basic research and clinical prevention and treatment. Peking Union Medical College Hospital has also contributed to this field, particularly by emphasizing early and middle-stage prevention and treatment, a concept we proposed earlier, which aligns with the integrated treatment concept for CKD recently proposed abroad. Since the prevention and treatment of this disease involve a wide range, we invited dozens of domestic experts and professors, including not only kidney disease specialists but also professionals from various internal medicine disciplines, as well as relevant departments such as pediatrics, gynecology, neurology, dermatology, and basic immunology. They elaborated on the disease's mechanisms, clinical aspects, prevention, and treatment from different perspectives, summarized some clinical experiences and basic theories, and referred to current international materials to write this book.