Back when I was a medical student, I thought my nephrology lecturer was a fickle dyslexic - which explained why he kept flitting between nephritic and nephrotic in his lecture notes. And I wonder why I never really grasped either syndrome until now... ...
Features of nephrotic syndrome - "NAPHROTIC"
Na+ - you may rarely get hyponatremia in nephrotic syndrome; this is also a reminder that there is an intense pathophysiologic retention of sodium due to reduced oncotic pressure
Albumin - serum levels are decreased
Proteinuria >3g/day
Hyperlipidemia
Renal vein thrombosis
Oedema
Thrombosis
Infections - more prone to them due to loss of Ig in the urine
Coaguability
Features of nephritic syndrome - "HO HO"
Hematuria - not forgetting the all-important RED CELL CASTS
Oedema
Hypertension
Oliguria (secondary to developing azotemia)
Admittedly, the 2nd mnemonic is pretty weak =P
I guess the take home point is to be aware of the complications that can arise in patients with nephrotic-range proteinuria. On the other hand, one needs to be very wary of deteriorating renal function in patients who develop red-cell casts.
