[Incidence and clinical significance of thromboses and thrombo-embolic complications in nephrotic syndrome patients].

Chest X-ray, pulmonary isotopic photoscanning. Doppler sonography of iliac and femoral veins, inferior venacavagram and phlebography of the renal veins have been performed in 26 patients with nephrotic syndrome in order to determine the frequency and localization of thromboses and thromboembolic complications in these patients. 7 of 26 patients (26.9%) exhibited thromboses or thromboembolic complications (2 left sided renal vein thromboses, 1 right sided ileofemoral thrombosis and 1 bilateral ileofemoral thrombosis with occlusion of the vena cava inferior). In one patient renal vein thrombosis caused pulmonary embolism. In 3 other cases with life-threatening severe episodes of pulmonary embolism, the origin of the emboli could not be detected. Serum albumin level was found to be an appropriate parameter to assess the risk of thrombosis development in these patients. In 7 patients with thromboses or thromboembolic complications the serum albumin level was below 2 g/dl, whereas in 19 patients without these complications the serum albumin level was, with one exception, higher than 2 g/dl (1.5 +/- 0.3 g/dl vs. 2.6 +/- 0.5 g/dl; p less than 0.001). The possible pathophysiologic mechanisms for this observation are discussed. Our results help to identify the population of nephrotic patients who are most likely to experience thromboembolic disease. It therefore would be justifiable to carry out a prospective controlled study examining the question, whether this group of patients with benefit from prophylactic anticoagulation.