Running head: UREMIA AND AZOTEMIA 1

Uremia and Azotemia

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What is the difference between uremia and azotemia? 

Uremia is a disease characterized by high levels of urea in a person’s blood. Urea is

majorly found in urine. Therefore, the disease can be described as high levels of amino acids

and end products of protein metabolism which comprise urea and creatinine (Dehghani et al.

2016). On the other hand, azotemia is a disease signified by excess nitrogen compounds such as

urea and creatinine among other waste compounds (Jullien, Diconne & Darmon 2015).

Both uremia and azotemia are kidney conditions. However, the main difference

between the two results from the causes. Uremia is caused by high degrees of urea in the blood

while azotemia is caused by high degrees of nitrogen in the blood. Also, azotemia ensues when

an individual’s kidney is damaged thus its efficiency is not normal resulting in the failure to get

rid of water products in the kidney. On the other hand, uremia occurs following azotemia

during the last stages of kidney failure. At this point, the kidney fails and cannot function at all

(Zhang et al. 2016).

What symptoms related to uremia will likely be exhibited by the patient? 

Common symptoms that the patient can exhibit comprise of fatigue, anorexia, pruritus,

nausea and vomiting, weight loss and muscle cramps. However, major symptoms to note is

uremic neuropathy which is a group of symptoms related to nerve damage. This particular

symptom makes the body to become numb and tingling (Dehghani et al. 2016). It is also

common for patients suffering from the condition to feel electrical sensations that often occur

on the hands and feet regions. The symptoms of fatigue, body weakness, anorexia, and pruritus

are exhibited gradually and get worse with time (Zhang et al. 2016).
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References

Dehghani, H., Heidari, F., Mozaffari-Khosravi, H., Nouri-Majelan, N., & Dehghani, A. (2016).

Synbiotic supplementations for azotemia in patients with chronic kidney disease: A

randomized controlled trial. Iranian journal of kidney diseases, 10(6), 351.

Jullien, P., Diconne, E., & Darmon, M. (2015). Uremic frost: a clinical symptom of severe

azotemia. Intensive care medicine, 41(7), 1357-1358.

Zhang, W., Zhou, X., Zhang, H., Yao, Q., Liu, Y., & Dong, Z. (2016). Extracellular vesicles in

diagnosis and therapy of kidney diseases. American Journal of Physiology-Renal

Physiology, 311(5), F844-F851.