CARING FOR YOUR KIDNEYS

Your Kidneys
Did you know that in you two (2) kidneys, there are 2 to 3 million nephrons, which include clusters of fine blood vessels (glomeruli) and small tubes that function to filter blood, reabsorb water and essential substances, and then produce and excrete urine?

Acute kidney injury
When the kidneys suddenly stop or reduced in functioning, it requires immediate attention and treatment. Local studies show that about 7% of hospitalized patients experience this condition, while some very critical patients are treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Chronic kidney disease
In Malaysia, the rate of chronic kidney disease leading to kidney failure continues to increase from 9.07% (2011) to 15.48% (2018) and leads to more than 50,000 patients requiring dialysis. It is also estimated that by the year 2040, patients requiring dialysis will exceed 100,000 cases.

Risk factors for kidney damage/ injury due to lifestyle practices
Among the factors of kidney injury due to lifestyle practices are:

• Lack of water intake (dehydration)
• Excessive intake of painkillers
• Use of traditional medicines or supplements of unknown content
• Chronic diseases that are not well controlled such as diabetes and high blood pressure
• High salt diet and unhealthy lifestyle
• Untreated infections, whether related to the urinary tract or any disease

 

Why Lab Tests Are Important When Kidney Disease Is Suspected

Kidney disease often occurs silently without obvious symptoms in the early stages. Therefore, lab tests such as urine tests, blood tests, and sometimes kidney biopsies play a very important role in detecting problems early before damage becomes more serious.

Many patients only seek treatment when symptoms become more noticeable, such as swelling in the face or legs, foamy urine, bloody urine, high blood pressure, or unexplained fatigue. However, small changes that can be detected through lab tests often appear earlier than the symptoms.

The simplest is urine test that can provide a lot of information about the health of your kidneys. Through this test, your doctor can detect the presence of protein, blood, certain cells or other substances that may indicate inflammation or damage to your kidneys.

In addition, blood tests are also very important to evaluate kidney function by measuring levels such as creatinine and urea in the body, which help your doctor understand how well your kidneys can filter waste products from your blood.

Even after urine and blood tests have been done, the information obtained is still inadequate to determine the exact cause of your kidney disease. In these cases, your doctor may recommend a procedure called a kidney biopsy to obtain a small tissue sample for further examination in a pathology laboratory.

The word “biopsy” often causes anxiety because it is an invasive procedure. However, a kidney biopsy is a common procedure, performed by a trained doctor, and will provide very important information to determine an accurate diagnosis.

Through microscopic examination of this kidney biopsy, a pathologist can assess the kidney tissue to identify the disease (diagnosis). This information is very important because the treatment vary depending on the type of damage that has occurred to the kidney tissue.

Accurate diagnosis allows more specific and effective treatment, whether through medications, periodic monitoring, lifestyle changes, including offering dialysis or kidney transplant when the kidneys are too bad. Without sufficient information from laboratory tests including kidney biopsies, treatment may not be able to be accurately targeted.

Most importantly, the public needs to understand that these tests are carried out to help patients get the best and most appropriate treatment as early as possible. Do not be afraid to undergo the required tests recommended by the doctor because the information obtained from these tests can play a major role in protecting your kidney’s health in the long term.

In 2025, more efforts have been executed to detect kidney diseases earlier especially through health examinations and screening at health clinics and general practices (GP). At the same time, the public is also encouraged to be more aware of the mentioned risk factors so that diseases can be detected earlier and be treated more effectively, hence significantly reducing the risk of kidney damage or injury.

Dr. Fauzah binti Abd Ghani
Senior Medical Lecturer
Department of Pathology
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Consultant Anatomic Pathologist: Renal Pathology Subspecialty
013-6277576
fauzah@upm.edu.my

Date of Input: 12/03/2026 | Updated: 12/03/2026 | nadia_rahman