Basics Of Blood Urine Nitrogen
Blood urine nitrogen (BUN) is a common index to assess patient’s kidney condition, and a better understanding about BUN is very helpful for patient to take care of himself.
What is BUN?
BUN is a major end metabolic waste of protein. Protein will be decomposed into amino acid, and amino acid can produce NH3 and CO2, which will compound urea in liver. While the content of nitrogen in urea is about 28/60, and one gram of protein can produce about 0.3 gram urea.
What is the normal BUN level?
BUN in our body can be produced continuously, and it will be filtered out by our kidney. Unlike creatinine, BUN can be absorbed back by kidney tubules, but if the faster the flow rate in kidney tubule is, the more BUN will be filtered out.
BUN changes in a stable range in our body, and for healthy people, it is 3.2~7.1mmol/L, or 9~20mg/dL.
What does high BUN level mean?
BUN level in our body can be affected by many factors, and many factors can cause patient to have high BUN level. For example, if patient takes much protein in his diet, his BUN level will rise, and if patient has severe dehydration, he will also have high BUN level. Besides, if patient has severe burn, hyperpyrexia, severe bleeding in upper gastrointestinal tract, etc, patient will also have high BUN level.
While, if patient’s high BUN level is caused by these factors, it will not be very severe, because after proper treatment, patient’s condition can recover to normality.
On the other hand, if patient’s high BUN level is caused by kidney disease, it will indicate severe kidney damage. Because our kidneys have strong metabolic ability, patient will not have high BUN until more than half kidney function is damaged.
Thereby, if patient has high BUN and if patient has kidney disease, he should be careful about his condition, and taking measures positively is very important at this point.
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