Polycystic kidney disease

Disease	Injury	Nutrition	Poison

Special Topic	Surgery	Symptoms	Test

Kidney and liver cysts - CT scan

Liver and spleen cysts - CT scan

Polycystic kidney disease

Alternative Names:

Cysts - kidneys; Kidney - polycystic; Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease; ADPKD

Symptoms:

blood in the urine
flank pain on one or both sides
excessive urination at night
abdominal pain or tenderness
- any part of abdomen
- right upper quadrant
- left upper quadrant

Signs and tests:

Examination may show high blood pressure, kidneys or abdominal masses (aggregations of cells) which are felt by touch during examination, abdominal tenderness over the liver (right upper quadrant), and enlarged liver. There may be heart murmurs or other signs of aortic insufficiency or mitral insufficiency.

A urinalysis is nonspecific, but it may show urine protein or blood in the urine.
A CBC may show decreased or increased RBCs and hematocrit.
Cerebral angiography may show associated aneurysms.

Polycystic kidney disease, and associated cysts on the liver or other organs, may show on:

In a family with several affected members, genetic linkage tests can be performed to determine with fair reliability whether a person at risk carries the gene for ADPKD.

Review Date: 12/1/2001
Reviewed By: Andrew Koren, M.D., Department of Nephrology, NYU-Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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