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“NEPHROTIC WHAT..?”
Nephrotic syndrome is not a disease, but an umbrella term for the collection of signs and symptoms that occur when the kidney filters (glomeruli) leak protein into the urine. Don’t be intimidated by the disease names; they are just descriptions of how the kidney tissue looks under a microscope.
Some symptoms of nephrotic syndrome include:
Proteinuria- Large amounts of protein ‘spilling’ into the urine
Edema – Swelling in parts of the body, most noticeable around the eyes, hands, and feet that become painful
Hypercholesterolemia – High level of cholesterol
Hypertension – High blood pressure
Hypoalbuminemia – Low levels of albumin in the blood
Someone who is experiencing these symptoms but has not had a kidney biopsy is diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome. To learn more about what is causing a patient’s nephrotic syndrome, doctors may choose to perform a kidney biopsy. After biopsy, a patient is usually diagnosed more specifically, based on what can be seen under the microscope.
The common diagnoses are:
Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS):
Some sections of kidney filters show scarring.
Minimal Change Disease:
Kidney tissue shows very little change from normal kidney tissue.
Membranous Nephropathy:
Immune system attacks kidney tissues and damages filtering units.
