What Does Elevated Urea Nitrogen (BUN) Mean
Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) is a common standard to assess patient’s kidney condition. Besides, the level of urea nitrogen in blood can affect patient’s health condition obviously.
What is the normal BUN level?
Urea is the major metabolic product of protein, and it can be filtered out by kidney. The content of nitrogen in urea is about half, While in the process of filtration, much urea nitrogen can be reabsorbed back to blood by kidney tubule.
These factors cause BUN level in our body changes a stable range, and it is 3.2~7.1mmol/L (9~20mg/dL).
What does elevated BUN level mean?
Our BUN level can be affected by many factors, like protein intake, blood volume, etc. When patient take much protein in his diet, or patient has severe hydration, he will have elevated BUN level. On the other hand, high BUN level caused by these factors will not last long.
For patient with kidney disease, if his elevated BUN level is caused by his kidney disease, that will be a dangerous sign.
Our kidney has strong metabolic ability and compensation, and half kidney function will be able to guarantee our body health. And that also means the level of BUN will not rise until more than half kidney function is damaged. Thereby, if patient’s elevated creatinine level is caused by his kidney disease, that mens patient already have severe kidney damage.
Besides, even when patient’s damaged kidney function has already reached half, patient’s BUN level may not be very high. Because BUN level will rise obviously when the damaged kidney function reaches two thirds. And when patient’s BUN level reaches 21.4mmol/L, that may indicate patient is in the end stage of kidney failure.
In the end, if you have any other trouble in dealing with your kidney disease, you can email us your problem, and we can give a detailed reply timely.
Tag: High BUN Level
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