LONG-TERM EVALUATION OF 2 PREDNISONE TREA TMENTS IN INITIAL IDIOPATHIC-NEPHROTIC-SYNDROME IN CHILDREN - PRELIMINARY-RESULTS

Ninety six patients aged from 6 months to 15 years old were admitted t o Chilean hospitals with the diagnosis of primary nephrotic syndrome i n a period of 30 months. These patients were randomly separated in two groups, group A received prednisone for 8 weeks and group B received the same drug during 12 weeks. All patients were evaluated at 6, 12 an d 18 months after the end of treatment. The moment and number of relap ses per patient, accumulated percentage of relapses, relapse rate per 100 patients, total number of relapses and complications were assessed . Frequent relapsers were subjected to a kidney biopsy, leaving in the protocol only those patients that had minimal changes. Patients resis tant or dependent to steroid therapy were discarded. Thus we report th e results of 56 treated patients followed during 18 months. No differe nces in analyzed parameters were observed between the two treatment gr oups. It is concluded that these preliminary results do not support th e prolongation of prednisone treatment in children with primary nephro tic syndrome.