Screening tests can help check kidney diseases

Interventions like controlling blood pressure and glycaemia can help prevent kidney disease or even delay its progression.

In its editorial ‘Chronic kidney diseases — the looming threat’, the January 2008 issue of the Medical Journal of the Armed Forces talks about including simple urine and blood pressure tests in the health budget and introducing mass screening programmes. A study carried out by the Director General of the Armed Forces to determine the prevalence of chronic kidney disease in a high-risk population showed the effectiveness of targeted screening in detecting patients with the disease at an early

stage. Brigadier A S Narula, Consultant of Armed Forces Medical College, says an estimated 1 lakh new patients of end-stage renal disease enter renal replacement programmes annually in India.

There is a rising burden of chronic diseases in India, along with an increase in the number of chronic kidney disease patients.