Structure of kidney | Kidney Problems and Cures |

Structure of kidney.

The nephrons of human kidney are arranged along two distinct regions. The outer region is called cortex and an inner region is called medulla. There are two types of nephrons on the basis of their arrangement in kidney:

A pair of kidney is present in each human. It consists of millions of functional units called nephrons. A renal artery enters in to kidney and supply blood to nephrons. Blood comes out form kidney by renal vein. Kidney is very efficient body. It is only 1 % of the total body weight. While it receives 20% of blood supply of each heart beat. Urine is formed after the filtration of blood and processing through the tubular system of nephron. This urine is collected in the central cavity of the kidney called pelvis.

Kidney Problems and Cures

The inner or outside factors of the kidney may cause disturbance in the functioning of the kidneys.

Kidney Stone 

Sometimes, stone material is found in the kidney, This stones cause urinary obstruction. The situation becomes complicated by infections. These stones have specific chemical nature. Different metabolic diseases cause kidney stones. There are following types of kidney stones.

1. Calcium stone:

The higher level of circulating calcium in blood is called hypercalcemia. It is a cause of the calcium stone.

2. Oxalate stone:

The higher blood level of oxalate is called hyperoxaluria. It is a cause of the oxalate stone. Oxalates are present in green vegetables and tomatoes. So these green vegetable and tomatoes are the source of hyperoxaluria. The incidence of calcium oxalate types stones are 70% of all the kidney stones.

3. Calcium phosphate stone:

The incident of calcium phosphate stones are15%.

4. Uric acid stone:

The incident of uric acid stones are 10%. The salts of calcium phosphate and uric acid are precipitated during urine formation. They accumulate to form stone. 

Lithotripsy

The technique of non-surgical removal of kidney stone is called lithotripsy. In this technique, the kidney, ureter or gall bladder stones are broken up. There are several ways to break these stones. The most common is extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. In this case, high amount of X-rays or

ultrasounds are passed through the body with stone inside. The shock waves break the stone into tiny pieces or into sand. These timy pieces or sand are passed out of the body in urine.

Renal Failure

Different pathological and chemical factors may progressively destroy the glomerular part nephrons. This causes increase in plasma level of urea and other nitrogenous wastes. The rise in urea level causes many complications like increase in blood pressure and anemia.

Dialysis

The cleaning of the body for urea is called dialysis. The function of the kidney is lost completely in chronic renal failure. The blood of the patient is treated with dialysis for the removal of blood urea. The blood is cleaned by passing it through an artificial kidney or by filtering it within the abdomen. The dialysis removes waste or excessive water like healthy kidney. The dialyzer is a. kidney machine that works on the principle of kidney. It removed nitrogenous wastes and excess water form the blood. Dialysis is done again and again until kidney is transplanted. There are two types of dialysis:

1. Hemodialysis:

Hemodialysis means cleaning of blood. In this case, blood is passed through dialyzer or artificial kidney. The dialyzer has two spaces. These spaces are separated by thin membrane. Blood passes from one side of the membrane by a tube. While dialysis fluid passes on the other side of the membrane. The wastes and excess water pass from the blood through the membrane into the dialysis fluid.

2. Peritoneal dialysis:

The abdomen is lined by a thin membrane called peritoneum. So the cavity of the abdomen is called Peritoneal cavity. In the case of peritoneal dialysis, the peritoneal cavity is filled with dialysis fluid. Fluid is entered the body through catheter. Excess water and wastes pass through the peritoneum into the dialysis fluid. This process is repeated several times in a day.