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How Are Kidney Stones Diagnosed

April 17th, 2009

Do you have kidney stones? You will never know until you are examined by a doctor because the symptoms associated with this problem are very similar to UTI or urinary tract infection.

So, you have to set an appointment with the doctor. While there, he or she will review your medical history and conduct a physical examination before running some tests.

If you are a regular patient of the doctor, it will be easy to pull your file out. However, if this is your first time, you will have to fill up the form and get your medical files.

Your medical history does not say much about kidney stones especially if you have never had this before which is why the next step is to conduct a physical examination. Here, the doctor will look at you physically and touch certain areas. This is hard for the doctor to do if the patient is in extreme pain.

So the best way to confirm initial findings is through laboratory tests. The doctor will either extract blood or ask a urine sample from you.

You may also have to be scanned and there are a variety of machines for that. These include a computed tomography (CT) scan, intravenous pyelogram (IVP), retrograde pyelogram, and the regular X-ray.

The CT scan is used for various examinations. A scanner and a computer are used to create images of the urinary system. The only problem is that it has difficulty detecting small stones if they are located near the bladder. If a stone is found, an x-ray follows to determine the orientation, shape and size of the kidney stone.

Intravenous Pyelogram or IVP is done after a contrasting agent is injected into the vein. Within minutes, the test will show if there is a kidney stone blocking the ureter. This is perhaps the best method to check if you have kidney stones even if there is a slight risk for an allergic reaction to the fluid that was injected into the vein.
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What You Should Know about Kidney Stone

January 12th, 2009

Many people don’t realize it but when the kidney suffers from complications such as kidney stones, it can disrupt its filtering function and may even cause more complicated diseases in people. Experts say that not all kidney stones are harmful as long as they are not located in the uterer—the tube that is connected with the bladder and where urine passes.

For people who are prone to kidney stones, it is a must to know the basic things that they must to ensure that they are knowledgeable enough in case they might be suffering from the condition.

The first thing that a person who is prone to kidney stones must know is what is it. As defined, kidney stone is a result of substances and other minerals crystallized in the urine. Kidney stones are hard pieces of materials that can block the passage of urine and may cause pain and infection to the person suffering from it. These stone may grow in size and in number when remained undiagnosed or untreated. Experts categorize kidney stone types into four: the “calcium oxalate”, the “struvite stone,” the “uric acid stone,” and the “cystine stones.”
kidneystone
Next is what are the possible causes of the condition. Experts say that there are many factors that may lead to the possible causes of kidney stones. These factors may include “heredity,” referring to the kidney related diseases that runs in many generations of the family; the “geographical location” which says that the places where the disease is common caused by other related factors such as climate and way of living; “diet” which greatly trigger the cause of the stone especially if they have high contents of calcium, sodium, and “oxalates,” which refer to products that may contribute to the increase in the levels of kidney stone-forming chemicals and substances in the body.

Knowing the signs and symptoms of kidney stones should follow this. You might be suffering from kidney stones if you feel insistent pain in varying levels in your back or side, tinge of blood present in your urine, slight chills or fever which indicates infections, often vomiting, foul smelling urine, cloudy or yellowish urine, urge to urinate often and painful urination. Read more…

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Do You Know What a Kidney Stone Is?

January 7th, 2009

Do you know what a kidney stone is? These are minerals are salts that are found in your urine and when it hardens, it becomes a stone. Most of the time, these are very small that it does not cause any harm but if they get bigger or it builds up, then there is a problem.

Kidney stones do not just stay in the kidney. It can move to other parts of the body. When that happens, you will feel certain symptoms. You could feel pain coming from your back or pelvis, experience spasms, notice bloody, cloudy or smelly urine, feel sick, urinate frequently and have fevers and chills.

It is hard to tell if you have kidney stones because these symptoms also happen when you have UTI or urinary tract infection. Your doctor can only tell which is which after conducting some tests.

The different tests available include blood test, urine analysis, x-rays, ultrasound and non-contrast helical computerized tomography. If initial reports and the results confirm that you have kidney stones, then the proper treatment is administered.

Kidney Stone

Kidney Stone

Doctors don’t know yet what causes kidney stones. Some believe it is caused by our lifestyle, due to certain medication, post surgery or therapy and in rare cases, a genetic disorder. This happens more often to men that women between the 20 to 40 age group.

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