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Home > Health Information > Kidney Disease ﹠ Conditions > Polycystic Kidney Disease > PKD Symptoms >
High blood pressure or lower back pain is usually the first sign of Polycystic Kidney Disease. In some cases, PKD patients may even suffer from refractory hypertension. Hence, why does PKD cause high blood pressure?
What is the reason?
As we know, Polycystic Kidney Disease is one common inherited kidney disorder that causes numerous fluid-filled cysts to grow in kidneys. With the expansion of kidney cysts, they will oppress their surrounding kidney functioning tissues, resulting in renal ischemia and anoxia condition.
This condition leads juxtaglomerular cells to release a large amount of renin so that angiotensin II activity increases. Then, small artery walls all over the body contract and high blood pressure occurs finally. Additionally, the decline of kallikrein and prostaglandin release is another cause of renal hypertension for Polycystic Kidney Disease patients. These substances are vasodilators.
How to lower high blood pressure for PKD patients?
Many medicines, such as diuretics, ACEI, ARBs, CCB and beta-blocker, can help control high blood pressure. However, for PKD patients, diuretics are not suitable, because they can reduce the blood volume within kidneys and worsen their hypertension. Furthermore, to strengthen the therapeutic effects, two or more anti-hypertensive medicines may be used together.
If these medicines don’t work efficiently, some other systemic treatments are recommended. For example, micro-Chinese medicine therapy that can help expand blood vessels all over the body as well as kidneys and increase the blood flow into kidneys, so high blood pressure declines naturally. What’s more, it is also helpful to shrink kidney cysts through draining sac fluid and inactivating cells which secrete sac fluid. Generally, after about one month, PKD patients can find their blood pressure comes into normal and their kidney disease is under control. (To know more about this therapy, you can go to Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy.)
