Prognosis of Glomerular Nephritis in Childhood

Abstract

A study of the outcome of glomerular nephritis in childhood, similar to that reported from the Stanford University Medical School,1 was undertaken at the University of Rochester Medical School, Rochester, N. Y. The earlier survey was based on 186 children seen in the children's service of the Stanford University Medical School from 1920 to 1936 and demonstrated a much higher percentage of cases of chronic and fatal glomerular nephritis than had previously been found by other observers. A similar study, done subsequently in Milwaukee,2 demonstrated for the younger age groups a prognosis as serious as that found in the Stanford series.Several reasons have been advanced for these discrepancies in statistics, the chief one being lack of agreement in classification of the condition, failure of recognition of the latent stage of glomerular nephritis, failure to make quantitative urinalyses of concentrated urine and selection in sampling of the Stanford group because of Dr. Addis' reputation. Another possibility to be considered was that glomerular nephritis might differ geographically.With the last possibility in mind, a study was made of cases of glomerular nephritis observed in the children's service of the University of Rochester Medical School. The same classification and similar methods of examining the urine were employed in the present study as were used in the previous study at Stanford.The series 3 consists of 146 children from 1 to 15 years of age in whose cases the diagnosis of glomerular nephritis was made between From the