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Clinical Nephrogeriatrics pp 1–11Cite as

Structural and Functional Renal Changes Secondary to Aging

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Abstract

Kidney aging is under the influence of different factors including genetic factors, gender, ethnicity, and comorbidities, and normal aging process has an important role in daily clinical practice. In short, the physiological process of kidney aging includes reduced weight and preserved kidney volume, increased number of sclerotic glomeruli, increased size of remaining glomeruli, loss of afferent and peripheral arterioles and redistribution of blood into the medulla, decreased glomerular filtration, increased permeability of the glomerular basal membrane, tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis, reduced concentration and dilution ability of the kidney, and increased kidney sensitivity to toxic ischemic damage. The above-noted changes in the kidneys need to be known for establishing diagnosis of potential kidney disease/failure by adequate measurements of glomerular filtration, in order to adapt the therapy and to prevent numerous metabolic disturbances for which the kidney is responsible. Although age-related alterations are different to those induced by diseases, sometimes the two processes cannot be easily distinguished.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Department for Renal Diseases, Zvezdara University Medical Center, Belgrade, Serbia

    Nada Dimkovic

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  1. Nada Dimkovic
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Correspondence to Nada Dimkovic .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nephrology Division, Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Carlos Guido Musso

  2. Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    José Ricardo Jauregui

  3. Departamento de Medicina, Salamanca, Spain

    Juan Florencio Macías-Núñez

  4. University of Medicine “Grigore T. Popa” and University Hospital “C. I. Parhon”, Iasi, Romania

    Adrian Covic

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Dimkovic, N. (2019). Structural and Functional Renal Changes Secondary to Aging. In: Musso, C., Jauregui, J., Macías-Núñez, J., Covic, A. (eds) Clinical Nephrogeriatrics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18711-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18711-8_1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18711-8

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