Diagnosis Methods of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD)

An early diagnosis is very important for Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) to accept timely treatment. If effective treatment can be taken in time, this disease can be worsened with easy recurrence, causing Renal Failure, or even Uremia. Well then, how to make sure that whether patients get Polycystic Kidney Disease or not and can exact diagnosis depend on some symptoms only? The answer is “not”.

Firstly, main clinical symptoms of Polycystic Kidney Disease: continuous or paroxysmal pain on waist and abdomen usually happens as primary symptoms, and painful feeling will be more serious after tiredness; Haematuria is a typical symptom happened among nearly half Polycystic Kidney Disease patients, expressed by intermitted gross Haematuria without pain; Abdominal masses in various sizes can be touched on upper abdomen flank, sometimes complicated by Hypertension with vertigo and headache; Renal Insufficiency can be found by obvious abnormality of renal function tests, with low but fixed urine specific gravity.

Secondly, Body Check: unilateral or bilateral kidneys can be touched in nodule shape through body check. Pressing pain can be felt when there is a infection. 50% patients have increased size of waist.

Thirdly, Assistant Tests:

(1) Routine urine test: no abnormality can be found in early stage, and microscopic Haematuria can be found in middle and late stage. Some patients may have Albuminuria. White Blood Cells and pyocyte can be found when there is complicated by Stones and Infections.

(2) Urine osmotic pressure test: even in the early stage when there is only very few cysts, expressions of renal concentrating function damage can be observed. This means that this damage may not be related with kidney structure damage only. Instead, it may also be related with renal insensitivity to antidiuretic hormone. Renal concentrating function decline happens before glomerular filtrating function decline.

(3) Serum creatinine is increasing progressively with kidney compensatory ability decline. Creatinine clearance rate is a more sensitive index.

(4) In KUB plain film, increased kidney image can be seen with irregular shape.

(5) Through IVP, deformation tendency of compressed renal pelvis and renal calices can be found. Renal pelvis and renal calices can be found in strange spiderlike shape. Renal pelvis is plain and wide, while renal calices neck become longer and thinner, showing a curved shape.

(6) Through Type-B Ultrasonic examination, a large number of shadows can be found in bilateral kidney region.

(7) Bilateral kidney enlargement can be found in CT examination, with lobulated shape. Many cysts with thin cyst wall can be found inside fluid.


If patients doubt they get Polycystic Kidney Disease, they should go to normal hospital for a whole body checks. Taking medicine by their own choice is forbidden, which can lead to some unnecessary problems.