azotemia

Azotemia is a biochemical term with both broad and narrow concepts. In the broad sense, as long as blood urea nitrogen or creatinine and other non-protein nitrogen exceed the normal range, it can be called azotemia. According to general laboratory textbooks, the normal value of blood urea nitrogen is ≤7.1 mmol/L (20 mg%), and the normal value of blood creatinine is ≤176.8 μmol/L (2 mg%). In the narrow sense, when patients with kidney disease are in the stage of chronic renal insufficiency and blood urea nitrogen and creatinine both exceed the normal range, this period is called the azotemia stage, or pre-uremia stage. It occurs mainly due to impaired renal excretory function and increased protein breakdown in the body (such as infection, poisoning, severe tissue trauma, etc.). During this period, azotemia progresses progressively, and severe cases may develop uremia.