Kidney HELP !

Nursing Students Student Assist

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Understanding the Kidneys.

I am working on 10 questions that we have for an assiment. I am stuck on a couple though..

mainly though this one ( for now )

Does glomerular filtration change with age ?

I know it does. But just cant seem to find much anywhere on it ! any ideas??

this is my answer so far

Aging is accompanied by decrease in cortical nephron population and a reduction in renal mass which leads to decrease GFR. The average GFR in a male is about 125 ml/min but this value decreases by approximately 1ml/min/yr after age of 40.

The medullary nephron population is relatively preserved and age-related vascular changes in the medulla are minimal. Despite the decline in GFR with aging, the serum creatinine concentration does not increase because there is also age-related decrease in skeletal mass. Although renal function is diminished in elderly, it is sufficient to maintain homeostasis under normal circumstances. However, the renal response to common stress can lead to renal insufficiency. (Stoelting & Hillier, 2006).

BUt I think it is just to clinical , she wants it simple so she can see we understand

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

i'm not sure of the answer myself, but here are two websites where you may find them:

http://www.kidneyschool.org/splash/toc.shtml -- kidney school! this is an online resource for patients to learn everything they ever wanted to know about kidney disease. each link goes to a self-learning module explaining such things as how the kidneys work, how they fail, treatment options and much much more. there are 16 modules you can access.

http://www.renalinfo.com/us/en/display/how-kidneys-work-and-fail -- what is kidney failure? a online informational resource from baxter. it is written for patient education, but has nice explanations of what is happening when the kidneys fail. has some animated pictures with sound on how the kidneys work.

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i didn't look anything up, but a thought would be d/t atherosclerosis and decreased blood flow to kidneys.

less perfusion = less output

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