What is Nephrotic Syndrome?

About Nephrotic Syndrome:

• It is a kidney disorder that causes your body to pass too much protein in your urine.
• It usually results from a problem with your kidneys’ filters (glomeruli).
  • The kidneys remove waste and excess fluid from your blood through filtering units called nephrons.
  • Each nephron contains a filter (glomerulus), which removes waste and excess fluids from your blood and send them to your bladder as urine.
  • Common waste products include nitrogen waste (urea), muscle waste (creatinine), and acids.
  • In healthy kidneys, the glomeruli filter out waste products.
  • They allow your blood to retain thecells and proteins your body needs to function regularly.
  • Nephrotic syndrome usually happens when the glomeruli are inflamed, allowing too much protein to leak from your blood into your urine.
• Causes:
  • It is not a specific kidney disease.
  • It can occur in any kidney disease that damages the filtering units in a certain way that allows them to leak protein into the urine.
  • Some of the diseases that cause nephrotic syndrome, such as nephritis, affect only the kidney.
  • Other diseases that cause nephrotic syndrome, such as diabetes and lupus, affect other parts of the body as well.
• Symptoms: Signs and symptoms of nephrotic syndrome include:
  • Severe swelling (edema), particularly around your eyes and in your ankles and feet
  • Foamy urine, a result of excess protein in your urine
  • High fat and cholesterol levels in the blood. The medical term for it is “hyperlipidemia.”
  • Weight gain due to fluid retention
  • Fatigue
  • Loss of appetite
• Nephrotic syndrome can lead to serious complications, including
  • blood clots that can lead to thrombosis 
  • higher risk of infection caused by the loss of immunoglobulins, proteins in your blood that help fight viruses and bacteria
  • high blood pressure, also called hypertension
  • brief or long-lasting kidney problems, including chronic kidney disease and kidney failure

Treatment: It includes addressing the underlying cause and taking steps to reduce high blood pressure, high cholesterol, swelling and infection risks. Treatment usually includes medications and changes to your diet.

Q1: What are proteins?

Proteins are large, complex molecules that play many critical roles in the body. They do most of the work in cells and are required for the structure, function, and regulation of the body’s tissues and organs. Proteins are made up of hundreds or thousands of smaller units called amino acids, which are attached to one another in long chains. There are 20 different types of amino acids that can be combined to make a protein. The sequence of amino acids determines each protein’s unique 3-dimensional structure and its specific function. Amino acids are coded by combinations of three DNA building blocks (nucleotides), determined by the sequence of genes.

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