The Urine Urokinase Concentration in End Stage Renal Disease with Acquired Renal Cyst

To see whether there was any difference in the urine urokinase concentration between acquired cystic kidney disease (ACKD) group and control (non cyst) group in end stage renal disease patients (ESRD), we evaluated fifty ESRD patients who had been maintained on chronic hemodialysis for various period. The urine urokinase concentration was higher in the ACKD group (17.5±14.7 unit/ml, range 13.5–47.0 unit/ml, n=9) than the control group (4.1±3.4 unit/ml, range 0.5–12.0 unit/ml, n=36) (p<0.001), and polycyst group (2.6±1.8 unit/ml, range 1.0–5.1 unit/ml, n=5) (p<0.01). But there was no difference between the control group and polycyst group. In the control group and the ACKD group, there was a direct relation between the dialysis duration and the urokinase concentration and the longer the dialysis duration, the higher the urine urokinase concentration (r squared=0.424, p=0.0001). The hemodialysis duration was longer in the ACKD group (42±17.0 months) than the control group (20.0±12.5 months) (p<0.005). These findings suggest that urokinase may be responsible for cystogenic degeneration in ESRD.