Extremely itchy skin is a common symptom of advanced kidney disease. The itch can range from irritating to life-disrupting. Your skin may itch all (or most of) the time. Some people have itch on one area of their skin.
Common areas for this type of itching include the head, arms, back, and abdomen. It also tends to be worse at night, which can disturb your sleep. The itching is lower in intensity just after dialysis as the blood urea levels will be lower. However, it increases in intensity two days after dialysis.
Pruritus is distressing, itchy skin, which creates a prickly feeling on or under your skin and an urge to scratch it. It is also called uremic pruritus or chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus (CKD-aP). Constant itching may lead you to have scratch marks on your skin or patches of irritated skin.
Why Does Kidney Disease Affect the Skin? Kidney disease can bring about certain physical changes, including changes to your skin. When living with CKD, your kidneys aren't able to filter your blood as healthy kidneys would, causing waste and toxins to build up, which can leave your body feeling extremely itchy.
Urine Tests
One of the earliest signs of kidney disease is when protein leaks into your urine (called proteinuria). To check for protein in your urine, a doctor will order a urine test.
Damaged kidneys cause a build-up of toxins and wastes. Shrinking sweat glands cause very dry skin. The body makes chemicals that cause allergy symptoms like itching.
What does kidney pain feel like? Kidney pain often feels like a dull ache that gets worse if someone gently presses on that area. While it is more common to feel kidney pain on only one side, some health problems may affect both kidneys and cause pain on both sides of your back.
Itching is common in autoimmune liver diseases, such as primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and obstructive biliary disease. It also occurs with cancer of the head of the pancreas, hepatitis, and drug-induced liver disease.
Many reported cases of discolored skin, or hyperpigmentation, happen to people with ESRD. One cause of skin discoloration is related to pigments called urochromes being retained in the skin. Normally these are excreted by healthy kidneys. Patients with this condition tend to have a grayish, almost metallic color skin.
When kidneys are failing, the increased concentration and accumulation of substances in urine lead to a darker color which may be brown, red or purple. The color change is due to abnormal protein or sugar, high levels of red and white blood cells, and high numbers of tube-shaped particles called cellular casts.
Examples include dry skin (xerosis), eczema (dermatitis), psoriasis, scabies, parasites, burns, scars, insect bites and hives. Internal diseases. Itching on the whole body might be a symptom of an underlying illness, such as liver disease, kidney disease, anemia, diabetes, thyroid problems and certain cancers.
Several key parts of your 24-hour sleep-wake cycle (circadian rhythm ) can cause changes to your skin at night. 1 Sometimes, it causes itchy skin with no rash. Changes in body temperature, humidity or skin moisture, and hormone fluctuations can all contribute to nighttime itching.
Changes in urine color, transparency, and smell
A pinkish or reddish hue may indicate the presence of blood in the urine, while a greenish tone could be a sign of a bacterial infection. Cloudy non-transparent urine may be another sign of infection, but it may also suggest an abnormal level of salts in the liquid.
One rash that occurs in people who have end-stage kidney disease causes small, dome-shaped, and extremely itchy bumps. As these bumps clear, new ones can form. Sometimes, the small bumps join together to form rough, raised patches.
Stage 1 CKD means you have a normal eGFR of 90 or greater and mild damage to your kidneys. Your kidneys are still working well, so you may not have any symptoms. You may have other signs of kidney damage, such as protein in your urine.
Kidney damage, once it occurs, can't be reversed. Potential complications can affect almost any part of your body and can include: Fluid retention, which could lead to swelling in your arms and legs, high blood pressure, or fluid in your lungs (pulmonary edema)
GFR is the most important marker of kidney function. Unfortunately GFR cannot be easily measured in most clinical or research settings (see below), and therefore estimating equations are based on filtration markers such as serum creatinine (SCr) and cystatin C (CysC).