How can I tell if I have kidney disease?
If you have diabetes, get checked every year. If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, or a family history of kidney failure, talk with your health care provider about how often you should get tested. The sooner you know you have kidney disease, the sooner you can get treatment to help protect your kidneys.
What tests do doctors use to diagnose and monitor kidney disease?
To check for kidney disease, health care providers use
a blood test that checks how well your kidneys are filtering your blood, called GFR. GFR stands for glomerular filtration rate.
a urine test to check for albumin. Albumin is a protein that can pass into the urine when the kidneys are damaged.
If you have kidney disease, your health care provider will use the same two tests to help monitor your kidney disease and make sure your treatment plan is working.
Urine Test for Albumin
If you are at risk for kidney disease, your provider may check your urine for albumin.
Albumin is a protein found in your blood. A healthy kidney doesn’t let albumin pass into the urine. A damaged kidney lets some albumin pass into the urine. The less albumin in your urine, the better. Having albumin in the urine is called albuminuria.