Four Stages of Renal Insufficiency in China

In China, we definite the stages of renal insufficiency mainly according to the level of serum creatine. The four stages are mainly as follows: compensation stage, discompensation stage, early stage of renal failure, end stage of renal failure.
In the first stage: compensation stage, there is nearly no symptom in clinic for the kidney has a strong ability of compensation. When some of the renal intrinsic cells are damaged, others will do more work such as filtrating blood, which make serum creatinine is133～177umol/L. In this stage, kidney can still function and work well, so we call it compensation stage. We should pay attention however that there has been damage in the kidney and the GFR has decreased. Kidney can still discharge metabolism product, balance of electrolyte, and so on.
The second stage is discompensation stage. In this stage, serum creatinine is 177～443umol/L. The damaged renal glomerulus increases, which accounts for about 60% to 75%. The secretion function has been damaged, blood urea acid increases as well. Kidney disease patients begin to have anemia, fatigue, weakness, lost body weight, and so on. If they suffer from water lost, infection or bleeding, the condition will develop faster.
The third stage is early stage of renal failure stage. In this stage, the serum creatinine is 443-707umol/L. There are more necrotic renal glomerulus. Renal fibrosis appears in renal tubules-renal parenchyma, renal blood vessels, which leads to serious damage in the kidney. As for the symptoms, kidney disease patients will have more obvious anemia, increased urine at night, and so on.
In the end stage of renal failure, serum creatinine is more than 707umoll/L. In China, patients begin to take dialysis. The damaged renal glomerulus are more than 95%. Patients with kidney disease will also have serious vomiting, little urine, edema, high blood pressure and so on.