What causes nephrotic and nephritic syndrome?
Okay, we talked about how to remember the components of nephrotic syndrome and nephritic syndrome. But what causes these syndromes? Let’s boil it down to the top causes. Nephrotic syndrome can be caused by renal diseases or systemic diseases (like diabetes). We’ll just discuss the renal diseases here. All of these diseases are characterized by a loss of foot processes (look it up in a physiology textbook if you’ve forgotten what these are). The three main renal diseases are: 1. Minimal change disease. This is the number one cause of nephrotic syndrome in children. The pathogenesis is unknown. It’s called minimal change (or sometimes “nil”) disease because under light microscopy, the glomeruli look pretty normal! Prognosis is good. 2. Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis. This disorder can be primary, or it may be associated with other conditions (like HIV, or heroin use). It’s called focal segmental glomerulosclerosis because if you look at a kidney biopsy, some (“focal”) glomeruli show
