Transcripts
DR. BRANDT:
There may be a way to limit this hyperfiltration injury, and that's where ACE inhibitors come in. ACE inhibitors are blood pressure medications, but they also will decrease renal hyperfiltration. They have the ability to actually decrease that glomerular single nephron blood pressure.
There is good evidence in other renal disease states, notably diabetes, that ACE inhibitors can slow the progression of renal disease and many nephrologists believe they may do the same in other diseases with hyperfiltration. Hyperfiltration is not dependent on the original disease. It's just a response to the loss of a certain percentage of your renal mass.
Once you've lost enough functioning glomeruli, the kidney really overworks. And we don't even know at what point that occurs. You can certainly donate a kidney to a child who needs a transplant or relative and your other kidney seems to do just fine.
So 50 percent is not the magic number. But where it is, is it 30 percent, 40 percent of normal functioning glomeruli or less, we don't know.
