ABSTRACT
Nephrotic syndrome (NS) refers to a group of diseases characterized by heavy proteinuria, hypoalbuminemia, hyperlipidemia, and edema. It is usually classi”ed as primary or secondary. Primary nephrotic syndrome is also known as idiopathic nephrotic syndrome, which is caused by a variety of primary glomerular diseases. In secondary nephrotic syndrome, kidney disease is part of an identi”able systemic disease (Orth and Ritz, 1998). Although nephrotic syndromes can be caused by various diseases, they have one common feature-injury to the glomerular ”ltration barrier resulting in the loss of a large amount of plasma protein in the urine and subsequent metabolic disorders (Falk, 2004).
