Nephrology

Nephrology deals with kidney health. It is very rare for kidney weakness to be an isolated disease. In most cases, the deterioration of kidney function is accompanied by other diseases that have a negative effect on the kidney.

These causes are often widespread diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus or elevated blood lipid levels. If a deterioration of the kidney function can be observed, it must be systematically clarified whether one of the mentioned diseases could be present.

Specialists from the field of nephrology work in our MEDIZINICUM. Our team of 75 experienced doctors from 30 different disciplines work together on an interdisciplinary basis to take a holistic view of your symptoms and make an accurate diagnosis.

Diagnostics of our kidney specialists

It is often treacherous that a deterioration of the kidney function over a long period of time can take place without any symptoms. Even if anomalies arise in the context of the care by other specialist areas of our MEDIZINICUM Hamburg, it is our highest goal to arrange an environment diagnostics by our nephrological team at an early stage in the sense of intelligent cooperation.

Our experienced nephrological colleagues have great expertise in the diagnosis and therapy of kidney diseases. In any constellation, the highest priority is to prevent the development of a dialysis obligation. As described above, this refers to classical kidney diseases (e.g. also to side effects of drugs), but also to the rarer constellations such as renal artery stenosis (a narrowing of the renal arteries leading to blood) or immunological kidney diseases (e.g. kidney involvement in rheumatic diseases or IgA nephritis). In rare cases, neoplastic diseases such as a plasmocytoma with kidney involvement can also be found.

The environment diagnostics of the renal physician

Detailed laboratory and urine diagnostics, which we carry out here at the MEDIZINICUM Hamburg, are of great importance in the context of nephrological diagnostics. This includes, for example, serological tests of the blood with antibody determinations. In addition, the urine is examined to see whether protein excretion could be present. The urine is examined microscopically for so-called dysmorphic erythrocytes, which can occur in immunological kidney diseases.

Kidney examination by experts

For imaging diagnostics, the latest sonography devices with high performance are available. RI determination can also be used to screen for indications of renal artery stenosis. Our radiology department supports targeted diagnostics with high-resolution CT and MR technology. In individual cases, the diagnosis is made by means of renal biopsy, i.e. taking a small sample of renal tissue with subsequent histological examination.