What stage are you? What percentage are your kidney at? What is eGFR? When are you eligible for dialysis or a transplant? So many questions and such a variety of answers. It’s sometime quite difficult to get your head around and understand these questions, hopefully the way I’ve described it below is easy to understand!
The main function of your kidneys is to clear waste products from your blood. How well your kidneys do this is measured using a scale called eGFR or Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate as it is known! The eGFR is a measurement of how much blood is ‘cleaned’ by the kidneys in one minute and this can be measured via a simple blood test which takes the amount of waste products in the blood and compares it using a formula that also takes your body size into account
Although the eGFR can be as high as 120, the average ‘normal’ eGFR is around 100 so kidney disease patients will see their eGFR rating as a percentage of kidney function.
Because the average normal eGFR is 100, the eGFR can be seen as a percentage of normal kidney function. However, values as low as 60 are considered normal if there is no other evidence of kidney disease
The CKD Stages
Stage 1 – Kidney Function 90% and over
Stage 2 – Kidney Function from 60% to 89%
Stage 3a – Kidney Function from 45% to 59%
Stage 3b – Kidney Function from 30% to 44%
Stage 4 – Kidney Function from 15% to 29%
Stage 5 – Kidney Function 14% and below – Also known as End Stage, this is when Transplant or Dialysis comes into play as your function hits circa 10%
Living with Dodgy Kidneys! 