Senior-Loken Syndrome and Receiving Social Security Disability
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Your kidneys have a crucial part to play in the way your body works, not only by getting rid of waste products and filtering your blood, but also by controlling your blood pressure, stimulating the production of red blood cells and balancing levels of electrolytes in your body.
Your kidneys are situated in your abdomen near the back. When things are normal, one is located on each side of your spine. The blood supply to your kidneys is through the renal arteries that come directly from your aorta, and they carry blood back to your heart through the renal veins to the vena cava. (The term "renal" is derived from the Latin name for kidney.)
Sensors within your kidneys determine how much water to excrete as urine. These sensors also decide your concentration of electrolytes when blood flows to your kidneys. For example, if you are dehydrated from sickness or exercise, your kidneys retain as much water as possible. Your urine becomes extremely concentrated. When you have enough water in your body your urine becomes clear and much more dilute.
Senior-Loken syndrome is a rare genetic (inherited) disorder. It is a disorder that involves the formation of cysts in the center of each of your kidneys that gradually cause your kidneys to lose their ability to function. Senior-Loken syndrome is evidenced by progressive wasting of the filtering unit of your kidney and progressive eye disease.
Senior-Loken disease is inherited in a manner that is known as autosomal recessive. What this means is that you have to inherit a defective (faulty) gene from each one of your parents in order to have the possibility of getting this syndrome.
There are several different signs and symptoms that you may have that may be an indication of Senior-Loken syndrome. Some of these include:
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- Excessive urination (polyuria)
- Inability to concentrate urine
- Renal salt wasting
- Thirst
- Kidney failure
- Arterial hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Anemia
- Metabolic acidosis
- Thickening of kidney filtration tissues
- Increased blood creatinine level
- Increased blood urea nitrogen
- Retinitis pigmentosa
- Progressive vision loss
- Blindness
- Tubulointerstitial nephropathy
- Tapetoretinal degeneration
- Growth retardation
- Mental retardation
- Endstage kidney disease.
