Salt Lake Telegram | 1937-07-16 | Page 6 | Health Advice

HEALTH ' ADVICE By-Morris-Rsh bein tin. Journal tke Ameeieea Medical Med-ical Association If tha cause of inflammation of the kidneys could ba definitely definite-ly determined in every case, it would be easy to list the different forma and the associated diagnoses. diag-noses. Everything depends, of course. whether the Inflammation f the kidney is classified according accord-ing to what Is seen of the kidney at operation or after the patient -dies, or whether tha condition Is . classified wholly according te the symptoms. There is one form of Inflammation Inflam-mation of the kidney which comes on suddenly in young people. Its cause is unknown, but it is believed be-lieved to be due to a severe infection. in-fection. In these cases the person becomes be-comes severely sick; his urine is cloudy, dark and scanty. Sometimes Some-times there is visible blood in the urine. Usually, If the Infection is removed re-moved or if the patient recovers from an infectious disease that ia coincidental, the kidney else begins be-gins to clear up. This la an acute form of Bright's disease, - The most serious of all fonni of inflammation of the kidney is the chronic form of Bright's disease. dis-ease. It aeldom occurs before the age of eO. It comes on very gradually. grad-ually. Sometimes it follows acute -Bright's disease. In most of these cases, the patient pa-tient has already; begun to have . some hardening of the arteries ' and a rise in blood pressure. The kidneys become Inflamed and the tissue is destroyed so that the urine Is thin and watery. It also ' contains albumin. Gradually waste products, which ought to be eliminated by the kidney, kid-ney, accumulate in the blood. These affect the entire body. There may be enlargement of the heart or the patient may die from a chronlo poisoning of the body with the results of these urinary products, this condition being called uremia. Sometimes when a rise in the blood pressure is hereditary or sometimes when it comes on without with-out any appreciable cause, the blood pressure disturbance may go on for some time before there are symptoms that the kidney is affected. In these casea the kidneys kid-neys may also show signs ef a chronic inflammation. When the blood vessels throughout through-out the body are hardened, naturally nat-urally those in the kidney nay also be affected. Usually it Is the large blood vessels of the kidney, rather than the small ones, that are concerned. Every tissue in the body may be affected with the difficulties in the circulation of the blood under such circumstances. circum-stances. ( In this form of kidney disease also, the treatment is directed to the body as a whole rather than -to the kidney. This form of inflammation of the kidney is frequently called the nephritis of old age. A fourth form of nephritis is that caused by bacteria which get into the kidneys by way of the blood or which develop in association as-sociation with the formation of stones or which get into the kidney kid-ney by extension from below. This form of inflammation is known as pyelonephritis because there is a combination of all of the symptoms of infections with those particularly concerning the kidneys. It should be apparent that It ia necessary to know exactly what la wrong before the correct kind of treatment can be given.