Nephrotic Glomerulopathies



The nephrotic syndrome may occur in the course of a number of glomerulopathies, each hav­ing a distinctive pattern of renal histopathology. Table 34-1 lists the more common renal lesions that present clinically with nephroticrange pro­teinuria. The entries listed in boldface type pres­ent almost solely as the nephrotic syndrome and will be discussed in this section. Each of these histopathological patterns may occur as a primary (idiopathic) renal lesion, in which no contribu­tory disease process has been identified, or sec­ondary to a known disease process. Clinical en­tities are listed but are not discussed separately in this section. Entries in blue type may have man­ifestations other than the nephrotic syndrome and are discussed in subsequent sections.