Renal disease is the name for a disease or condition that mainly affects the kidneys. Medical words for renal disease are nephropathy or nephrosis.
There are many possible causes of renal disease, including:
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Some pain medicines affect how well the kidneys work, if they are taken over a longer time period
- If a person has an organ transplantation, certain drugs need to be taken to keep the immune system from attacking the new organ. These often affect the kidneys.
- Certain diseases, basically from eating bread contaminated with Aristolochic acid.
- Certain viruses, such as HIV.
If renal disease gets bad enough, it can cause renal failure, where the kidneys do not work at all.