Nephrology · Ahmedabad
Preventive Kidney Health Check in Ahmedabad
Kidney disease can be detected years before symptoms appear using just two inexpensive tests: a blood test for eGFR and a urine test for albumin. Anyone with diabetes, high blood pressure, a family history of kidney disease, obesity, or aged over 60 should be screened at least once a year.
Reviewed by Dr. Pritish Shah, MBBS, MD (Internal Medicine), DrNB (Nephrology) — Senior Consultant Nephrologist, Apollo Hospitals International Limited, Ahmedabad.
This is the part of nephrology that changes the most lives and gets the least attention. By the time someone arrives with swelling, breathlessness or a creatinine of 6, the opportunity to prevent has already passed. Nearly every patient who reaches dialysis passed through a stage where two tests costing a few hundred rupees would have caught it.
Preventive nephrology is not a health-package upsell. It is a targeted assessment for people who carry real risk — and in Gujarat, given the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension, that is a very large number of people who currently feel perfectly well.
Recognising it
You should be screened if you
You do not need symptoms to justify screening. The entire point is to find the problem while you still feel well.
Investigation
What a kidney screening actually involves
Serum creatinine with eGFR
A routine blood test. eGFR converts creatinine into a percentage-of-normal filtration figure, which is far more interpretable than creatinine alone.
Urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio
A single urine sample. This is the test most commonly omitted from standard health packages, and it is often the first thing to turn abnormal.
Blood pressure measurement
Measured properly, with confirmation at home where readings are borderline.
Focused risk review
Your medications, family history, painkiller and supplement use, and metabolic risk factors — interpreted together rather than as isolated numbers.
Ultrasound where indicated
Added when there is a history of stones, recurrent infection, family history of polycystic disease, or an abnormal initial result.
Management
What happens after screening
Most people get reassurance and an interval. Those who do not, get a head start.
A clear result, explained
Your stage — or confirmation that your kidneys are normal — with the numbers explained in plain language rather than handed over as a report.
A personal risk assessment
Your actual risk of progression over the coming years, based on eGFR, albumin level and your other conditions.
Targeted intervention if needed
Where an abnormality is found, treatment begins at the stage where it is most effective — often just blood pressure optimisation and a kidney-protective medicine.
A defined follow-up interval
An explicit recommendation on when to repeat testing, rather than the vague advice to 'get it checked sometime'.
Medication safety review
Identifying anything in your current regimen — habitual NSAIDs, certain supplements, unregulated herbal products — that is quietly harming your kidneys.
Book a screening now rather than later if
These indicate a risk profile that should not wait for an annual check.
- You have diabetes and have never had a urine albumin test
- You have hypertension needing more than two medicines
- A close family member is on dialysis or has had a transplant
- You take painkillers most weeks for chronic pain
- A previous report mentioned raised creatinine, protein in urine, or a small kidney
Questions
Preventive Screening — frequently asked
Two are essential: serum creatinine with eGFR from a blood sample, and a urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio. Blood pressure should be measured at the same visit. This combination detects the large majority of early kidney disease and is inexpensive.
Please note: This page is general health information, not personal medical advice. Kidney disease varies significantly between individuals. Please consult a qualified nephrologist about your own reports before making any change to your treatment.