A histopathological outlook on nephrotic syndrome: A pediatric perspective

The developing world is observing changing histopathological patterns of idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS). However, the true burden of non-minimal change disease (non-MCD) presenting as INS remains unestimated owing to a paucity of data on renal biopsies. Data were collected from January 2006 to June 2014 on 75 children up to 16 years of age who underwent renal biopsies for INS. Mean age at biopsy was 11.2 ± 3.7 years. The male to female ratio was 1.5:1. A total of 25 (33.3%) children were steroid sensitive, 36 (48%) were steroid resistant, 10 (13.3%) were steroid dependent and 4 (5.3%) came with relapse of nephrotic syndrome (NS). Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) was the most common histopathological subtype observed in 35 (46.8%) children followed by membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN) in 11 (14.7%), membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) and mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (MSGN) in 4 (5.3%) each and IgA nephropathy in one (1.3%). MCD was the histological lesion in 19 (25.3%) children. The histopathology established FSGS as the main underlying cause of steroid resistant NS. The study highlights the emergence of non-MCD as the common cause of INS in the pediatric population and signifies the importance of renal biopsies in children with INS.