Polycystic Kidneys Causes

Anyone who is suffering from Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) will have no trouble in telling you just how painful the disease can be. What then are the polycystic kidneys causes, that are responsible for the pain and suffering brought about by PKD? To understand this, we must first realize that there are actually 3 different types of PKD. 2 of these are inheritable types while the other can be got from old age, dialysis or from the person having a history of kidney problems. We will now go on to discuss the more common, genetic forms and that should help us understand the polycystic kidneys causes.

The first of these which affects a large majority (90%) of the close to 7 million worldwide sufferers of PKD is known as autosomal dominant PKD. This form of PKD affects men and women in later life and will ultimately lead to kidney failure in the mid 60s meaning dialysis or a transplant is required to save the person's life. As I said, this form of the disease that affects 0.1% of the population is genetic and is inherited provided that the abnormal gene responsible for autosomal dominant PKD is transferred from 1 affected parent. This gives each of the couples' offspring a 1 in 2 chance of developing PKD. The other inherited type of PKD is called autosomal recessive PKD and affects new born children. The requirement here is more unlikely to occur since the abnormal gene must be passed on to the child from 2 carrier parents. So in the statistically remoter likelihood that both parents are carriers, the child then has a 1 in 4 chance of getting PKD. A very small percentage of the population suffers from autosomal recessive PKD, just 0.02%.

So, these are the polycystic kidneys causes. As, with any genetic disease the sufferer will probably feel that there is no rhyme or reason as to why they should get the disease especially if they have lived a very healthy life. But, as we have seen, if there is a history of the disease in the families of one or both of their parents then the chances of developing PKD are very real.