GFR describes the flow rate of filtered fluid through the kidney. The normal range of GFR, adjusted for body surface area, is similar in woman and man, and is in the range of 100-130ml/min/1.73m2. When people’s renal function decreases, GFR will correspondingly reduce, which depends on the severity of renal damage.
For normal renal function, GFR above 90 ml/min/1.73m2 and no much protein appear in people’s urine. The normal volume of protein in urine is less than one hundred and fifty gram, which usually manifest with –or -+ in test report. In early stage of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), GFR is an essential index, but it is not the only one. For some people who have renal damage, their GFR may above 90ml/min/1.73m2. Under this situation, they still can be diagnosed with CKD and at that time, they are just in stage 1 of Chronic Kidney Disease.
For patients with Chronic Kidney Disease stage 2, their GFR ranges from 60 ml/min/1.73m2 to 89 ml/min/1.73m2. In this stage, mild change has appeared in patients’ renal function and renal damage has been proved to exist.
In stage 3 of Chronic Kidney Disease, patient’s renal function has moderate change, and GFR is about 30 ml/min/1.73m2 to 59 ml/min/1.73m2. In this stage, due to the greatly reduce of GFR, waste products, excessive water and electrolyte can not be filtered out, leading to the accumulation of them in patient’s body. Consequently, symptoms of edema and hyperkalemia will appear.
When GFR decrease to the value between 15 ml/min/1.73m2 and 29 ml/min/1.73m2, we can say CKD has developed into stage 4. In this stage, kidney has lost most of its function and patients are near to dialysis.
When GFR less than 15 ml/min/1.73m2, kidneys has lost almost all the function and patients need to undergo dialysis to keep living a normal life.
GFR can directly reflect the severity of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), so it attracts many patients’ attention. For all of us, we should keep healthy living habits, so as to avoid getting Chronic Kidney Disease.
