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PROGNOSIS IN THE NEPHROTIC SYNDROME
Author(s) -
JOHNSON J. R.,
READER RALPH
Publication year - 1959
Publication title -
australasian annals of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0571-9283
DOI - 10.1111/imj.1959.8.3.200
Subject(s) - nephrotic syndrome , medicine , pediatrics , biopsy , disease , renal biopsy , surgery
Summary Eighty cases of the nephrotic syndrome are reviewed with respect to their immediate and remote prognosis. Approximately 60% of patients with uncomplicated nephrotic syndrome lost their œdema in hospital, whilst this occurred in only 20% of patients with complicated syndromes (showing hypertension, hæmaturia or azotæmia). In 11 of 20 cases in which there was a biopsy finding of "normal renal tissue" there was loss of œdema in hospital, but this occurred in only two of 13 cases in which the biopsy findings were abnormal. Five of 10 patients admitted to hospital with gross œdema died during that admission, and none lost their œdema. Results with corticosteroid therapy were not as satisfactory as the results claimed by others, probably owing to lower dosage, but were superior to the results with all other forms of therapy. Nine of 32 patients given a course of steroids lost their oedema completely in hospital (including four who went into remission). The ultimate prognosis for the adults and older children followed for two or more years is discussed and compared with the prognosis for the young child. Seven of 15 patients with uncomplicated nephrotic syndrome in this series were in complete remission two or more years after the onset of the disease, whilst this was so in only one of 34 with complicated syndromes. Twenty‐one with the complicated syndrome, but only two with the uncomplicated syndrome, were dead at the time of follow‐up. The better overall prognosis of the nephrotic syndrome in the young child as compared with the adult and older child appears to be due to the far greater incidence of uncomplicated cases in the former age group.