Patient's question:
The doctor has a question to consult a few times, which is about my colleague's child. They are already ten years old, but have been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease. Surgery is not possible, so they want to use medication to treat it. Regarding the effectiveness of niacinamide in treating polycystic kidney disease and the cost, could you please provide some information?Doctor's answer:
Polycystic kidney disease is a congenital genetic disorder that affects both kidneys. Unlike kidneys prone to cysts, its kidneys are filled with cysts of varying sizes that can communicate with each other, gradually reducing kidney volume and controlling renal parenchyma, leading to expansion and functional harm until chronic kidney failure. Polycystic kidney disease is divided into two types: the infantile type is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, often accompanied by other congenital malformations, and most die within months, with relatively rare clinical diagnosis; the adult type is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner, usually occurring in middle age, and is also accompanied by polycystic lesions in other organs, such as the liver, spleen, pancreas, ovaries, and bones. Its onset has a family clustering tendency, and both men and women can be affected, with the risk being proportional; if both parents have the disease, the incidence in children increases to 75%; children without the disease do not carry the polycystic kidney gene, and their descendants (grandchildren) will not either.