In stage 4 of chronic kidney disease, you have severe, irreversible damage to your kidneys. However, there are steps you can take now to slow or prevent the progression of kidney failure.
What is stage 4 kidney disease?
Doctors consider stage 1 and stage 2 early-stage chronic kidney disease. At these stages, the kidneys aren’t working at 100%, but they still work well enough that you might not have symptoms.
By stage 3, you’ve lost about half of the healthy kidney function, which can lead to more serious problems and symptom development.
If you have stage 4 kidney disease, your kidneys have experienced severe damage. Stage 4 is the last stage before kidney failure or stage 5 kidney disease.
Doctors use two tests to monitor your kidney functions and disease progression. The first is the estimated glomerular filtration rate or eGFR. This test is one of the most reliable methods to check kidney function.
The current formula, which will be changing soon, takes age, sex, ethnicity, and body size into account.
When you have an eGFR of 15–29 milliliters per minute per 1.73 meters squared (ml/min/1.73m2), you have stage 4 kidney disease. This means your kidneys are not functioning as they should, and you are at the last stage before kidney failure.
eGFR may not be accurate in certain circumstances, such as if you are:
- pregnant
- overweight
- very muscular