Need medical advice

[aneeshm]

One of my relations has been diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome. They're losing around 8 grams of protein a day.

Now they've already consulted a doctor, done a biopsy, the results are in, and he's going to prescribe medication, but I've come here for information about the problem itself.

How bad is it? Can it be reversed? Do any treatments exist to reverse it? What's the worst that can happen? Can the patient lead a normal life?

I want to know all that I can about it.

[SlowwHand]

Some people may benefit from limiting protein in their diet to reduce the buildup of wastes in the blood.

Nephrotic syndrome may go away once the underlying cause, if known, has been treated. In children, 80 percent of cases of nephrotic syndrome are caused by a condition called minimal change disease, which can be successfully treated with prednisone. However, in adults, most of the time the underlying cause is a kidney disease such as membranous nephropathy or focal segmental glomerulonephritis, diseases that are treated with corticosteroids, immunosuppressive drugs, and, in some cases, cytotoxic agents. Unfortunately, these treatments do not always bring about remission of nephrotic syndrome. Depending on the disease, as many as half of the patients may develop chronic kidney disease that progresses to end-stage renal disease. In these cases, the kidneys gradually lose their ability to filter wastes and excess water from the blood. If kidney failure occurs, the person will need dialysis or a kidney transplant.

http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/nephrotic/index.htm

[Dr Strangelove]

Nephrotic syndrome is basically a common patholgic manifestation due to damage to the renal glomeruli. Renal glomeruli are structures within the kidneys which filter the blood. They consist of a tuft of capillaries surrounded by a thin sac. Blood enters the glomerulus and most of the liquid and low molecular weight soluble elements pass into the sac. The sac drains into a complex tubular system which allows most of the water and solutes to re-enter the blood stream. The body regulates how much water, sodium, other electrolytes, uric acid and a variety of other soluble compounds you pee out each day not by controlling how much is filtered at the kidney, but instead by regulating how much is re-absorbed back into the bloodstream in the tubular area. One important characteristic of this system is that normally proteins, which constitute the majority of the higher molecular weight elements in blood, stay in the blood stream in the glomeruli. Osmotic pressure then helps re-absorb smaller moleucules in the tubular area. When the glomeruli are damaged by disease abnormal amounts of protein spill into the glomerular sac and then into the tubular system. This is why people with Nephrotic Syndrome spill large amounts of protein into their urine, their glomeruli are leaky.

There are a wide variety of diseases which may produce nephrotic syndrome. Some of them are benign and self-limited with a high percentage of full recovery, others are chronic or progressive nd may lead to either chronic kidney disease or even kidney failure. Some of these diseases can be treated with steroids or immunosuppressive drugs, some are refractory to treatment. There is a subclass of nephrotic syndrome known as rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis. As the name implies in this condition kidney failure develops relatively rapidly.