Causes of Chronic Kidney Disease in Adults

What are the most common causes of CKD in adults?

The most common causes of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in adults are diabetes and high blood pressure.

Diabetes

High blood glucose levels, also called blood sugar levels, can damage your kidneys’ filters. Over time, your kidneys can become so damaged that they no longer do a good job filtering waste and extra fluid from your blood. Damaged kidneys can allow proteins your body needs to pass out of your blood and into your urine.

Kidney disease caused by diabetes is called diabetic kidney disease.

High blood pressure

High blood pressure can damage blood vessels and other parts of the filtering system in the kidneys. If these parts of the kidneys’ filtering system are damaged, your kidneys may not work as well to remove waste and extra fluid from your body. Extra fluid in your body can raise your blood pressure even more, creating a dangerous cycle.

High blood pressure can damage blood vessels in your kidneys.

What else can cause CKD in adults?

Other causes of CKD in adults include

• acute kidney injury
• certain cancers and related conditions, such as multiple myeloma
• disorders in which the body’s immune system attacks its own cells and organs, such as systemic lupus erythematosus and anti-glomerular basement membrane, also called Goodpasture’s disease
• drugs that are toxic to the kidneys
• glomerular diseases, such as membranous nephropathy, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy, and IgA vasculitis
• hemolytic uremic syndrome and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura
• hepatorenal syndrome and cardiorenal syndrome, in which liver disease or heart disease damages the kidneys
• infections
• kidney stones with complications
• metabolic syndrome
• polycystic kidney disease
• rare genetic conditions, such as Alport syndrome and uromodulin-associated kidney disease
• renal artery stenosis
• severe obesity
• sickle cell disease

Knowing the cause of your CKD can help you and your health care team develop a plan to manage your CKD and protect your kidneys from more damage. Taking steps to manage your CKD may also help to prevent or delay other health problems, such as heart disease.

Clinical Trials for CKD in Adults

NIDDK conducts and supports clinical trials in many diseases and conditions, including kidney disease. The trials look to find new ways to prevent, detect, or treat disease and improve quality of life.

What are clinical trials for CKD?

Clinical trials—and other types of clinical studies—are part of medical research and involve people like you. When you volunteer to take part in a clinical study, you help doctors and researchers learn more about disease and improve health care for people in the future.

Researchers are studying many aspects of the causes of CKD, such as

• disease pathways that lead to CKD
• how our environment and social factors affect gene variants linked to an increased risk of developing kidney disease
• rare, atypical, and other forms of kidney disease that we don’t fully understand yet

Find out if clinical studies are right for you.

Watch a video of NIDDK Director Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers explaining the importance of participating in clinical trials.

What clinical studies for CKD are looking for participants?

You can find clinical studies on the causes of CKD at ClinicalTrials.gov. In addition to searching for federally funded studies, you can expand or narrow the list to include clinical studies from industry, universities, and individuals; however, the National Institutes of Health does not review these studies and cannot ensure they are safe for you. Always talk with your health care provider before you participate in a clinical study.