MPs urged to screen their kidneys

CRAIG SIMCOX/Dominion Post

DIY: National MP Allan Peachey with one of the do-it-yourself urine test kits sent to MPs. He lost a kidney to cancer 18 months ago and encourages his colleagues to test themselves.

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Politicians are being encouraged to mind their pee and queue for the sake of their kidneys.

The 121 MPs received do-it-yourself urine test kits from Kidney Health New Zealand yesterday, allowing them to screen themselves for chronic kidney disease.

The organisation hopes the "dip-stick" test will show them how simple screening is, and promote the introduction of a targeted programme.

The second round of screening will happen next Thursday, when staff from Wellington Hospital's renal unit will visit the Beehive to perform blood pressure checks for World Kidney Day.

National MP for Tamaki Allan Peachey gets by on one kidney after his other, cancerous, one was removed 18 months ago.

Though urine tests would not have picked up the tumour, he encouraged his colleagues to do them because they could indicate another form of kidney damage.

The first sign something was wrong came in the middle of one night in September 2006, as Mr Peachey got up to watch the All Blacks play South Africa on television. When he went to the toilet, he passed blood in his urine.

Despite that, he decided to stay up and watch the game, then went back to bed. He woke up with a terrible pain in his side "like a vice".

A scan revealed a 15cm tumour and his kidney was removed not long after.

He said there had been no previous warning signs and if he had ignored those sudden symptoms, he might not have survived. He has since completed three half-marathons.

Kidney Health New Zealand medical director Kelvin Lynn said the home-screening tests would give the MPs results in about 60 seconds - "a bit like a pregnancy test". The presence of protein was a warning sign for chronic kidney disease.

If positive, people needed to speak to their doctor about what to do next.

Some of the MPs would be in the high-risk groups for kidney disease, he said.

Those at higher risk include Maori, Pacific peoples, smokers, those over 50, people with high blood pressure, diabetes or a family history of kidney disease.

Kidney Health New Zealand wants a targeted screening programme introduced for at-risk groups.

Professor Lynn said blood pressure and urine protein tests were simple and inexpensive but a whole-population programme was unlikely to be cost-effective.

It is believed more than 190,000 Kiwis have serious kidney disease, the organisation says. Up to 90 per cent of patients have no symptoms till the disease is advanced, meaning dialysis and transplantation may be the only treatment options.