Chapter 6

CLASSIFICATION OF RENAL SYNDROMES

• Nephrotic Syndrome
  • Primary Nephrotic Syndrome
  • Systemic Nephrotic Syndrome
• Nephritic Syndrome
  • Low serum complement
    • Primary
    • Systemic
  • Normal serum complement
    • Primary
    • Systemic
• Acute Renal Failure
  • Pre-renal
  • Renal
  • Post-renal
• Chronic Renal Failure

Remember, a medical classification is an artificial grouping of naturally occurring phenomena. Therefore:

• Several diseases present with the same syndrome - only a biopsy can differentiate them
• Several diseases have the same histopathology- only the clinical history can differentiate them
• Some diseases can cause different syndromes in different patients- only a biopsy can confirm the diagnosis
• It is not as confusing as it sounds: a final diagnosis is always based on the correlation of the clinical presentation and the biopsy findings.

The authors of this clinicopathologic classification are N. Kevin Krane, MD, nephrologist and S. Meleg-Smith, MD, renal pathologist