Proteinuria is a common symptom of kidney disease. But do you know which part of kidney is damaged that results in proteinuria?

Pathogenesis of proteinuria

As we all know, glomerulus is like a sieve, which is responsible for purifying the blood, while kidney tubules are responsible to reabsorb the useful components in the purified blood, and the remaining will be passed out of body with urine.

The reason why protein goes out is usually because that glomerular filtration barrier is damaged.

There are two main reasons for this destruction: the first is the inflammatory reaction caused by the deposition of immune complexes, and the second is the rupture of the vessel wall caused by increased pressure in the glomeruli.

The former is the main manifestation of most types of kidney disease, while the latter is common in Diabetic Nephropathy, Diabetic Nephropathy and other pathological types.

How to treat proteinuria?

For the proteinuria caused by inflammatory reaction, steroids are the commonly used treatment.

But it is important to note that steroids can only inhibit inflammatory reaction rather than cleanse immune complexes, neither repair the damaged filtration barrier.

For proteinuria caused by elevated pressure in glomeruli, anti-hypertensive medications (mainly ACEI or ARBs) are commonly used. Those medications can not only lower blood pressure, but also dilate blood vessels.

To what extent is proteinuria treated?

If it can turn negative, it is better, but in most causes, doctors can not do it.

That is because steroids have a lot of side effects. If you take steroids for long-term, they can do great harm to your immunity and even cause other severe complications.

Therefore, in the treatment of proteinuria, how to seek the balance between efficacy and side effects is an important standard to test the doctor’s level.

In general, it is considered clinically that it is good for you to control 24h urine protein within 1g. As to how many pluses in your urine, it is not important.