The Kidney Failure Symptoms Self-Check List

How to use the kidney symptoms checklist:

①.Scan the list of renal failure symptoms below, and circle the corresponding number(to the right) of each symptom you have experienced in the past 14 days.

②.Once completed, add up all the numbers you have circled.

③.Cross check the total number against the ‘Kidney Failure Symptoms Grading Index’ to find out your likelihood of kidney disease.


1. Fluid retention throughout the body 12

2. Skin ‘greyish’ in colour 12

3. Current or past history of kidney stones 8

4. Infrequent urination 8

5. Decreased urine output 6

6. Lower back pain, mild to moderate 3

7. Excessive urination 3

8. Difficult to pass urine 3

9. Dark yellow; brown; cloudy; or bloody urine 3

10. Foamy or bubbly urination 2

11. Increased urination at night 2

12. Dripping after urination 1

13. Inconsistent urine stream 1

14. Strong smelling urine 1

15. Increased urge to urinate 1

16. Burning during urination 1

17. Fatigue 1

18. Mental confusion and/or poor concentration 1

19. Itchy skin 1

20. Nausea and/or vomiting 1

21. Reduced skin elasticity, and dry 1

22. Shortness of breath and/or difficulty breathing 1

23. Bruising easily 1

24. Low libido 1

25. Weakness 1

26. Muscle cramps and stiffness 1

27. Dizziness 1

28. Bad breath 1

29. Thirst, strong 1

30. High blood pressure 1

31. Anemia 1

Kidney Failure Symptoms Grading Index:

Low Likelihood of Kidney Disease = 0 to 5

Moderate Likelihood of Kidney Disease = 6 to 11

High Likelihood of Kidney Disease = 12+

What are the Common diseases Causing Chronic Kidney Failure

There are various common diseases causing chronic renal failure, here, we will introduce them to you in detail.

The primary basic diseases mainly include chronic nephritis, a part of primary nephrotic syndrome, IgA nephropathy, chronic interstitial nephritis, hereditary nephritis, polycystic kidney disease, etc.

Secondary basic diseases mainly include diabetes, high blood pressure, hyperuricemia, systemic lupus erythematosus (sle), allergic purpura, renal amyloidosis, multiple myeloma, primary systemic vasculitis, etc.

In addition, infectious diseases such as chronic pyelonephritis, hepatitis b or hepatitis c virus (HCV) infection; obstructive diseases such as kidney stones, hyperplasia of prostate hypertrophy, prostate cancer, etc. Other diseases such as malignant tumor, drug poisoning, etc.

In the above primary diseases, chronic nephritis and tubular interstitial nephritis are the most common; in the above secondary diseases, diabetic nephropathy and high blood pressure are the most common.

Can High Creatinine Causes Kidney Failure

Creatinine level is used to measure kidney function, so patients always doubt whether high creatinine leve will lead to renal failure. In fact, creatinine level can indicate kidney problems in many cases, but it does not mean high creatinine level will always lead to renal failure.

Will high creatinine lead to renal failure?

Kidney failure indicates the kidney has almost lost its ability of filtering blood and discharging wastes. Creatinine is the metabolin of creatine and in a normal case it can be discharged by healthy kidneys. Therefore, creatinine level is usually in a stable range. Once you are diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, your kidneys can not work effectively and timely to discharge excessive creatinine. In this case, serum creatinine level increases. When a small part of your kidney function is damaged, creatinine level has no obvious increase, as the other part of your kidney function can also remove excessive creatinine out of your body. The medical research shows that creatinine level increases when your kidneys lose half of their function. In this case, high creatinine level means that your kidneys have been severely damaged.

Do you need to worry too much about temporary high creatinine?

People will sometimes have high creatinine level. This may be caused by many reasons. For example, before their tests, they eat much meat, do strenuous physical exercise or have improper diet, which can also lead to slightly high creatinine level. However, this high creatinine level is only temporary and after some time, it will be normal. Temporary high creatinine level does not lead to renal failure. What you should do is to regulate your daily diet and do exercise moderately, which will make your creatinine level in a stable range, and you need not worry too much about it.

Creatinine is just one of measurement of reflecting kidney function and does not mean high creatinine level will always lead to renal failure.