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  Tuesday, 11 September 2018
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My mother has rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid issues, was told in the past she had lupus even though signs never developed, and has ended up in the hospital twice for low sodium. She was put on a restricted liquid amount last August. A month or two ago she was referred to a nephrologist. She refused to go. Then she got the results back from a urine analysis and her protein number was over 200. Her protein/creat number was over 4500. She is home bound, depressed, and agoraphobic. She has asked me to find out how worried she should be. She has relented to seeing a nephrologist but the closest one doesn't have another appointment until November. She wants to know if she needs to get in somewhere sooner. She is terrified of having diabetes and wouldn't be able to do dialysis. Can anyone tell me what stage of kidney disease she is at with these kind of numbers? What would you recommend as far as treatment. Thank you in advance.
Hello,

In order to be able to provide information on stages of kidney disease, we would need to know your mother's eGFR or creatinine level along with her age and ethnic background. As well, regarding the protein/creatinine ratio, we would need to know the exact units. The easiest thing to do is to upload her results after obscuring or removing any identifying information about your mother's identity using the upload tool with your reply. With that, we should be able to provide greater insight.

Dr. Jordan Weinstein
She just turned 70 the end of August. Her ethnicity is Croatian. Family has history of high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart failure. Several family members also have thyroid issues. Please see attached for test results. Thank you!
This represents CKD stage 2. However the staging system underestimates kidney disease when protein levels are as high in the urine as they are in your mom's case. So while her kidney function is good at the moment, the very high level of protein in the urine is a concern and if not addressed can lead to several complications including loss kidney function as only one example. The treatment will depend on what is the underlying cause (e.g. diabetes, lupus etc) and addressing it directly. In addition, treatment of hypertension especially with angiotensin receptor blockers or ACE inhibitors likely benefits all conditions with large amounts of protein in the urine.

Dr. Jordan Weinstein
5 years ago
·
#1181
She has an appointment set up in November with a nephrologist. She was worried she needed to get in before that. Thank you for the quick replies and for having this platform available!
My pleasure. Best of luck with the appointment.

Dr. Jordan Weinstein
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