It is well known that there are some differences in clinical and laboratory findings between minor change nephrotic syndrome in adults and children. But little is known about minor change nephrotic syndrome in adults of our country except that it constitutes moderate proportion of nephrotic syndrome due to primary glomerular disease. Therefore we reviewed patients´ records and biopsy specimens of 126 patients with minor change nephrotic syndrome who were admitted to department of internal medicine of Seoul National University Hospital from January 1979 to June 1985.
The results obtained were as follows:
1) The patients with minor change nephrotic syndrome constituted 46.8 percents of patients with nephrotic syndrome due to primary glomerular disease. Major proportion of the patients were young patients, patients of ages between 15 and 24 constituting 57.9 percents. Male to female ratio was 2.32:1 with male predominance.
2) The clinical and laboratory findings of the patients were as follows; the proportion of patients with hypertension was 37.4%, azotemia 34.1°0, selectivity index above 0.2, 50.8%, RA factor 1.0%, antinuclear antibody 9.1°0.
3) The proportions of the patients according to the sub classification of light microscopic biopsy findings were as follows; nil change 27.0%, focal glomerular obsolescence 12.7%, mild mesangial thickening 0.2%, fcal tubular change 25.4%, mild mesangial hypercellularity 4.8%.
4) Immunofluorescence findings of the patients revealed deposits of IgG in 11.9° of patients, IgM in 33.9%, C3 in 25.4%, fibrinogen in 40.1% of patients. There was no significant difference between patients with immunoglobulin deposits in glomeruli and patients without deposits, in regard to the incidences of hypertension, azotemia, and hematur ia.
5) When treated with steroid only, 77.6 percents of the patients experienced complete remission in 8 weeks and 93.9 percents of the patients experienced complete remission in 26 weeks with relapse rate of 71.7 percents.
6) We observed various complications in the patients including pleural effusion, various infections and thrombosis in veins and femoral artery.
The above findings of adult minor change nephrotic syndrome was consistent with various reports of adult minor change nephrotic syndrome till now.
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