Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD)
Autosomal Dominant PKD
There are two types of PKD. The first, Autosomal Dominant PKD (ADPKD) is a very common inherited disease, where a child has a 50% change of inheriting the disease if either parent carries it.One in 500 newborns has ADPKD, which causes cysts to grow on the kidneys, and leads to kidney failure in 50% of cases.
Autosomal Recessive PKD
Autosomal Recessive PKD (ARPKD) is less common, but a far more severe form of the disease. Both parents must be a carrier for the disease and their children have a 25% chance of having ARPKD.
Approximately 1 in 20,000 newborns have the disease, but in this form of the disease cysts grow inside the kidney causing such severe damage that many patients die in the first month of life.
For those patients who survive, one-third will require dialysis by the age of 10. To make matters worse, children with ARPKD also have a liver problem called hepatic fibrosis that can also cause life-threatening problems.
