title: Renal syndromes of malaria.
abstract: Malaria is a disease of the erythron, but as would be expected with involvement of so vital an organ, serious secondary dysfunction of other organs such as the brain or kidneys commonly occurs. The body ultimately acquires defences against red cell parasitism, but when these do not culminate in effective phagocytic clearance of plasmodial antigens, injury to such organs as the liver and kidneys may result. All of the renal syndromes here described may occur in such close correspondence with malarial parasitism that a causative role in some cases is justifiably assumed. However, since all may occur in contexts other than malaria, in malarial as well as non-malarial countries, none is pathognomonic and none constitutes independent evidence of malarial infection. Indeed, though experimental malaria has had but a limited role in delineating the scope of possible malarial injuries to the kidney, the experiments of nature here described reveal natural malaria to be a versatile model system simulating most of the spectrum of known renal responses. The first three syndromes described are more or less direct consequences of unmodified malarial infection; the latter three reflect the intervention of immunity.
mesh_terms: D058186:Acute Kidney Injury / Q000209:etiology; D006457:Hemoglobinuria, Paroxysmal / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D008288:Malaria / Q000150:complications*; D009393:Nephritis / Q000209:etiology; D009404:Nephrotic Syndrome / Q000209:etiology; D009846:Oliguria / Q000209:etiology; D011507:Proteinuria / Q000209:etiology