NEPHROSIS IN CHILDREN

Abstract

I. OBSERVATIONS ON EIGHTY-FOUR PATIENTS IN THE last ten years a total of 84 patients with nephrosis have been studied at the Children's Hospital, Habana, Cuba. They were classified according to a clinical picture of more or less generalized pitting and recurrent edema, oliguria, albuminuria, hypoproteinemia, hypercholesteremia and high incidence of bacterial infection. Nephrosis is a common disease of early childhood. The majority of patients observed were 2 to 4 years of age, and the youngest was 10 months old. White children definitely predominated, with only a few Negro patients. Slight predominance of boys was also seen (fig. 1). Nephritic symptoms, such as hematuria, hypertension and urea retention, were seen as a group or independently in 83 per cent of patients. In 8 children the onset and subsequent course of illness were without nephritic symptoms. Hematuria, as evaluated by the Addis count of urinary sediment,¹ was observed in 79.7