title: Nephrotic syndrome in South African children: changing perspectives over 20 years.
abstract: We review our 20-year experience of 636 children with nephrotic syndrome (NS) in Durban, South Africa; 306 (48.2%) were blacks, 307 (48.2%) Indians and 23 (3.6%) were a mixed group (coloured); 91 (14.3%) could not be categorised and were excluded from the analysis. In Indian children, 134 of 286 (46.8%) had biopsy-proven minimal change NS (MCNS) and 94.8% of these were steroid sensitive (SS); 60 (21%) had SSNS but without renal biopsy; 59 (20.6%) had focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), with only 4.4% of these being SS. In blacks, membranous nephropathy accounted for 40% of cases; 86.2% were associated with hepatitis B virus antigens. Typical SSNS continues to be uncommon among blacks. Only 14.4% had either biopsy-proven SS-MCNS or SSNS; 32 had MCNS lesions on biopsy, but 18 were steroid resistant (SR); 67 of 236 (28.4%) had FSGS, all of whom were SR. Among coloured patients, 5 of 23 (21.7%) had biopsy-proven SS-MCNS and or unbiopsied SSNS; 10 (43.5%) had FSGS and 6 of 23 (26.1%) had membranous nephropathy. Proliferative lesions were present in only 2 of 23 (8.6%) coloured patients and was uncommon in all population groups. Overall mortality was 3.1%. In brief, this is the largest reported series of NS among children in Africa and shows a typical pattern in Indians, an unusual pattern of histological types in blacks and an intermediate picture in coloureds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, University of Natal, Faculty of Medicine, Congella, South Africa.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhimma
authors.forename: H M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Coovadia
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Adhikari
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D015432:Glomerulonephritis, Membranoproliferative / Q000628:therapy; D005923:Glomerulosclerosis, Focal Segmental / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009402:Nephrosis, Lipoid / Q000628:therapy; D009404:Nephrotic Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000628:therapy*; D013019:South Africa