ESTIMATION OF SEVERITY OF THE NEPHROTIC SYNDROME IN CHILDHOOD AS A GUIDE TO THERAPY AND PROGNOSIS

The degree of clinical and biochemical improvement observed in 20 children with the nephrotic syndrome who received a similar course of adrenocortical steroid therapy has been correlated with the severity of the existing renal glomerular damage. It appears that the clinical response of children with nephrosis to hormone therapy and their behavior shortly thereafter can provide the physician with information of prognostic value at an earlier period in the course of the disease than has been possible heretofore. This was especially true in the case of patients destined to have a favorable outcome. The immediate and long-term therapeutic benefits obtained in a small group of patients with nephrosis, who received sufficient adrenocortical hormone therapy to induce and maintain maximal improvement in all measurable abnormalities, are superior to the results obtained by therapy aimed only at control of edema.